Traditions / Legends

Traditions – Legends

Traditions

Austrian traditions are mainly rooted in peasant life and Christian faith. Although nowadays only about 5% of the population are farmers and a similar small percentage regularly attends mass, most of the old traditions are still surprisingly alive.

New Year’s

New Year’s Eve is celebrated like almost everywhere else with fireworks, parties and drinks. At midnight you listen to the sound of the “Pummerin”, Austria’s largest bell, either live in Vienna, on TV or on radio. Then the unofficial Austrian national anthem is broadcast: “The Blue Danube” waltz. People dance to it – more or less gracefully, depending on dancing skills and the number of drinks they’ve had.

New Year’s Day traditionally starts with watching the New Year’s Concert, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, on TV – if you manage to get up by 11 am. The concert is broadcast worldwide and watched by estimated one billion people from China to Zimbabwe. 

Carnival (“Fasching”)

Carnival traditions involve a lot of fancy dresses. Girls dress up in fancy dresses to go to balls or dress up in costumes to go to fancy dress parties. Guys usually dress up in suits but sometimes at fancy dress parties you also see them wearing fancy dresses. Anyways, celebrations are very colourful and reach their peak on Shrove (Fat) Tuesday. Fasching is celebrated most raucously in Carinthia and Vorarlberg, but fancy dress parties, balls and street parades are popular throughout the country.

Easter

Easter traditions are still mainly religious. Passion plays are performed in several places. The Easter bunny hides coloured Easter eggs, sweets and small presents for the children.
Maundy (Holy) Thursday is called “Gründonnerstag” (Green Thursday) in German, so people usually have something green for lunch – even though in this case “grün” in fact has nothing to do with the colour green. Still it’s the day of the year when spinach is the most sold vegetable in Austria.
From this Thursday till the Easter vigil Saturday night, church bells don’t ring because they’ve “flown to Rome”. As a replacement girls and boys walk through the streets and make noise with Easter rattles (ratchets) instead.

1st May

The first of May is Labour Day and a day off. In every town and village a Maypole is erected the day before. Especially in the countryside it is strictly monitored during the night because young men from the – of course rivalling – neighbouring villages will do their best to cut it down.

Midsummer

Bonfires light up Midsummer Night. Especially in the mountains this can be very impressive when there’s a fire on every (other) mountain top. In order to show off their courage, young men try to jump over the fires – luckily the ambulance usually is present on site.

Autumn

In the Alps end of summer is marked by the “Almabtriebe”. Cattle, sheep and goats that have spent the summer grazing the mountain pastures (“Almen”) are taken down to their stables in the valleys. For this special occasion they are decorated with flowers, wreaths, ribbons and large bells which they wear around their necks.

Nikolaus, Krampus and Perchten

December 6th is Saint Nicholas (Nikolaus) Day in remembrance of the wonder-working Bishop of Myra who lived around 300 AD. Nikolaus visits children at school or at home and brings candy and small gifts for them. Sometimes he first checks his Golden Book to see if they’ve behaved well during the year. For those who’ve been naughty he brings (or used to bring) along someone special – the Krampus.

The Krampus is a furry devilish creature with claws and horns. He usually carries a chain, a big sack and a rod and threatens to beat bad children or to even put them in his sack and take them away. Luckily today parents and teachers don’t rely on such educational methods anymore, so Krampus is mostly banned from private homes and schools.
This doesn’t mean that Krampusse (there’re lots of them) are an endangered species. When they’re not with Nikolaus, they gather and roam the streets in the evening of December 5th, dragging chains and bells behind them. People love to watch the creepy scenery – but beware! Krampusse often go after their audience with birch rods and don’t shy away from using them …
In recent years the Krampus tradition has been mixing with a similar, but actually even older, pre-Christian Alpine tradition: the Perchten.

The Perchten go back to Germanic believe. During the “Rauhnächte” (the nights around Midwinter and the beginning of the New Year) Frau Perchta, a dual male and female deity, is said to wander around, accompanied by all sorts of evil spirits. The bad demons were eventually named after her: “Perchten”. Young men started to dress up as Perchten themselves to drive off the evil creatures. “Perchtenläufe” (Perchten runs) were organized. The traditional Perchten costum consists of a wooden mask with tusks and horns and a fur garment. They wear big bells on their backs and often carry dried horse or cow tails.

In recent times Krampus and Perchten often appear at the same events and it’s hard to distinguish between them. Modern pop culture also has its influence – sometimes it’s more Lord of the Rings than Alpine thrill and more Heavy Metal music than hell’s bells ...  

Christmas

Although American-style Santa Claus has also been introduced to Austria, it’s still the Christkind (Christ Child) that brings the presents. Although it’s supposed to be little Jesus, the Christkind is usually portrayed as a little angel-like figure with blond curly hair.
Before Christmas children write letters with their wish list and put them on the window sill. The Christkind (or one of its little angel helpers) picks them up at night and then hopefully brings the right presents on Christmas Eve. It’s the evening of the 24th when families gather around the Christmas tree and presents are handed out.

Legends

Traditional

There are lots and lots of traditional stories, myths and legends, some you can find in books, some are still told today. Some are already forgotten, some are still quite alive because there was a tradition built around them like it happened with Frau Perchta and her Perchten.

One very old legend revolves around the capital of Carinthia, Klagenfurt, the river Glan and a dragon. The story goes that in old times the whole area was dark, swampy and covered with mist. Many people lost their lives while trying to cross the river, men and cattle just disappeared in the woods. But sometimes you could hear a terrifying growl cutting the air: a water dragon, a so-called Lindworm! To get rid of the abhorrent creature the Duke of Carinthia built a grim tower at the edge of the Lindworm's territory. He promised the tower and a lot of land to whoever killed the beast. Some fearless footmen seized the opportunity and hid in the tower. They tied a bull to a big chain with a hook and presented it as a bait. The plan worked: Only shortly after, the Lindworm appeared and wolfed down the bull. While still struggling with the hook, the beast was immediately slain by the footmen. After this heroic victory the swamps were drained and a small village developed around the tower. Today the coat of arms of the city of Klagenfurt still shows a  tower and a dragon and you can visit the town's landmark, the Lindwurm monument.

Modern

Modern times also have their legends, of course. For example the one starring a young eccentric man from Vienna who had a number 1 hit in the US charts, became Austria's (so far) only real pop star, died in a car crash in the Dominican Republic at the age of 40 and is buried in an honorary grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery. 

Or the one about this one time in 1978 when Austria beat Germany in a football match: 

Photos: Osterhase 01 © Harry Hautumm / pixelio.de; Almabtrieb © Kurt Bourda / pixelio.de; Lindwurm © Michael Ransburg / flickr.com, license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en