according to Britannica<\/a>. <\/p>\nIt\u2019s a far cry from how Christmas is celebrated in the United States. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn America, we focus a lot on positive reinforcement, but Krampus is not that,\u201d he said. \u201cKrampus is about being good or else.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some liken Krampus with Halloween, Bogner doesn\u2019t agree with the comparison.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some ways, it reminds me of Mardi Gras \u2014 the revelry of Mardi Gras before Lent,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Krampus, you have Christmas coming and Krampushacht the day before St. Nicholas Day. It\u2019s kind of a time to let go a little bit and have fun a little bit before the piousness of Christmas. With the costumes, the bells, the cocktails that go with it, it\u2019s just fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Krampus Verein events stand out as many of its members wear imported authentic, hand-carved Krampus masks from Austria during their appearances. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are different from anything you see out there with a lot of people running around in Amazon latex masks,\u201d Bogner said. \u201cBecause we were born out of the German-American club, we try to keep it as authentic as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
He and the group\u2019s other founders knew their Krampus events would be popular, but they weren\u2019t prepared for how many people were eager to attend. <\/p>\n
During their first Krampusnacht event, a traditional Alpine celebration on Dec. 5, held last year at the German-American Society, they thought they might have about 400 people come out for the night. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had about 970 get through the door,\u201d he said. \u201cThis year, we sold out with 1,100 people there.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also scheduled additional events this year. In addition to Krampushacht and the upcoming Rauhn\u00e4chte, the group also hosted Taps & Teufels on Nov. 29 at Green Bench Brewing in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
The group also hosts Krampus socials throughout the year on the third Friday of every month at the German-American Society.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe bring the masks so new people can be up close to these Austrian carved masks and talk about the year coming up and different events, as well as previous events and what we can do better,\u201d Bogner said. \u201cWe want to continue growing our group and have the full cast of characters. St. Nicholas \u2014 we already have one \u2014 the angels that accompany him, the basket carrier, Knecht Ruprecht … and handlers and security. We\u2019re also looking to expand more events to more places.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, FL \u2014 Celebrating a darker side of Christmas, Krampus Verein of Pinellas County hosts its final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-86458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}