Coming across the name “Krampus” years ago made Tania Yager curious. The horned, anthropomorphic figure of central European folklore is known as a counterpart to Saint Nicholas, one who punishes naughty children where St. Nick rewards well-behaved ones. What was this all about? “I’ve always been fascinated with cultural heritage and looking at other people’s cultures, what they do, genealogy and looking into the past, folklore and storytelling…so I started doing a deep dive,” she says, going on to gorge on books, podcasts, interviewing people, traveling to Europe to do field research, and writing a book that was published earlier this year, “The Allure of Dark Winter Spirits.” “I just really took it upon myself to educate myself, and was fortunate enough to throw myself into a position where I could be in some of these other countries at these time periods and experience what was happening, so that I could bring that home.” The Wild Hunt of Vista, now in its fourth year, is a Krampus procession held during the annual Dark X-mas Market event in Vista, starting this year at 4 p.m. Saturday on South Citrus Avenue and East Broadway. A Krampuslauf is a traditional parade of Alpine winter spirits that accompanied Saint Nicholas, Yager says, going house-to-house or through the streets and there are huge processions in places like Salzburg or Munich in Germany. She wanted people in her community, who maybe aren’t able to travel abroad and experience it, to have it be accessible to them here, with all of the costuming and the creativity. And, in organizing this locally, she wanted to also focus on folkloric education. “I think it’s really, really, important, especially in this day and age, that we acknowledge that, unless you are of Native American or possibly Mexican descent, we are all descendants from immigrants. This is a melting pot nation where all of these traditions kind of come together, and some of them have been lost,” she says. “Sometimes, we don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing. Why are we putting a tree in the house? Why are we hanging up stockings? Where did that come from? Some of those traditions come directly from Alpine traditions, or they come from Italian traditions. The education is fascinating, so that’s part of the reason why I did it.” Yager, 52, is the founder and lead coordinator of The Wild Hunt of Vista and the Dark X-mas Market, and she’s also the founder of Twisted Heart Puppetworks, a company specializing in theatrical and adult puppetry. She lives in Vista with her husband, Chuck, and took some time to talk about this alternative holiday celebration and the community within it. Q: What is the appeal, for you, of having a darker alternative to a stereotypical Christmas celebration? A: I think that we’re leaving a lot of people out when we just focus on the kind of stereotypical American Christmas that focuses on Santa Claus. That guy’s gotten a lot of attention for a long time, and that’s great, he’s a wonderful gift-bringer. What I get out of this is, number one, I’m supporting local artists. When we make this type of art, there’s not a lot of representation for us at other markets. Between me, you, and the tree, we live in an area that is coastal and there’s kind of the Southern California coastal vibe of painted seashells, and I’m just not interested in seeing that. That’s not my vibe, that’s not my people. I’ve always been a bit of a punk rock or goth kid, and I’m an artist that enjoys darker folklore. There’s a large market for that here and a lot of those people don’t feel like they have representation. When I started this with Sarah Spinks from Backfence Society four years ago, she and I had both spent time in Germany at Christmas time. I said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we did a market that was kind of modeled after the German and Austrian markets, but we did it with all Gothic vendors? And we really showcased our friends and the people in our community that make the type of art that that we want to see?” I think part of the reason why it’s grown from 1,500 people the first time that we did it, to 6,000 people last year, is because it is the alternative. It is something that people want to see, even if they’re maybe not into that on a regular basis. It’s something that’s different and very unique to our community, and we really stand behind it. Supporting local community is all about where it’s at right now. The world is in a really shaky and rocky place, the upper muckety-mucks in the government aren’t looking out for us, so we kind of have to look out for each other. I want to make sure that my community of artists here gets an opportunity to showcase their wares and sell their stuff. What I love about Vista… I really love that it has kind of a small-town feel. And I like the trees. There was a very short period of time where my husband was being courted by a company up in LA, and we were thinking that we might have to relocate to LA, and I just couldn’t handle not being around trees. I like the people, I like the community, I like it that it feels kind of like a small town even though it’s growing, and I like having vegetation.   Q: I see on your website that you’ve had to do some educating about Krampus and the procession, what it is and what it is not? How were people responding to The Wild Hunt and the Dark X-mas Market early on? What kinds of misconceptions were you hearing? A: First, I want to put out there to anybody and everybody who will listen is that I understand that the imagery is intense. A lot of times, people are responding to the imagery without getting the whole story and knowing that this is a part of a greater tradition that actually belongs to the Catholic Church. There are a lot of people that don’t even care about that, they just look at anything with horns and automatically equate it with something that’s evil or satanic, and that is really unfortunate. I’m not out here in the streets trying to do a bunch of Satan worship, that’s really not it. This is a cultural thing. It goes back into my culture (born in the United States, with an ancestry that includes the Czech Republic, Slavic, German, and a little bit of Scandinavian and Welsh), and the cultures of a lot of other participants, as well. That has been the push, to make sure that when we’re walking in the procession, we’re handing out flyers that say what this is, what it’s part of, and why we’re doing this. I’ve done educational classes, just trying to make myself available to talk with people about that intense imagery because there was some pushback. There were strongly worded emails to the mayor and some social media comments that, you can imagine, are not so kind. I’m not sitting over here with my walls up, with a hardened exterior; I want my community to be happy with what I’m doing. I also know that if it’s not your jam, and you’re not going to come down to actually experience some of the joy that’s really happening, and the play and the creativity of this street theater, that’s totally OK. Just please be aware that sometimes the agendas that are being assigned to us by doing this are not accurate at all. Q: Can you share anything that you want to make sure people know and understand, that they might have the wrong idea about? A: First of all, that we’re somehow a part of some greater evil movement to take over Christmas. For folks who are really looking at Christmas from a Judeo-Christian perspective, where they’re celebrating light and life and the birth of Christ, we’re not trying to take that away from them. We’re trying to incorporate folklore that currently exists and is celebrated in Europe. There are so many good Christians over in Prague and the Czech Republic and Austria and Germany that are celebrating these traditions. This has been a part of it the entire time; it was Saint Nicholas from Myra, not necessarily Santa Claus. Saint Nicholas from Myra is celebrated and comes with his team of people, and Krampus just happens to be on that team. The other thing that I’d like for people to take away is that there are a lot of folks that will kind of pigeonhole some of us artists and some of this folklore into it being a Halloween thing. We hear all the time, “Halloween is over. You guys had your opportunity in October, leave Christmas alone.” What folks don’t really understand is that, in our cultural heritage and with our ancestors over in Europe and some places here in the United States, the wintertime in the past has been a time that was very dark and associated with ghost stories. Lots of these folk characters start from the October time period, all the way through January because winter was a really, really brutal time period. We didn’t always have the ability to saunter on down to the Walmart when we needed a new coat, or turn on the thermostat because it was cold outside. It was a difficult time for a lot of people, so that’s kind of what we’re shining a light on. There needs to be an understanding of the duality of nature and the duality of life-not everything is all light and bright, and not everything is all dark. It’s important to see that kind of yin and yang within the holiday. When we do that, that’s a more honest representation of wintertime, not just Christmas, and it’s a more honest representation of the cycle of nature. Q: What can people expect to see and experience if they’re in Vista this Saturday? A: The Dark X-mas Market is a European-inspired Christmas market that happens at night. It’s all Christmas-themed, but it’s a little bit edgy and alternative. It’s kind of turned on its head a little bit because we’re incorporating and curating only Gothic vendors and vendors that kind of focus on dark fantasy, Gothic folklore, and dark winter spirits. It’s grown in the past four years, from starting with 20 vendors to now 50 vendors. There’s food, the Twisted Horn provides hard cider, and this year, we’ve got Asylum Brewing Company doing a special kind of Krampus-themed beer, and a bunch of entertainment, including street buskers, a couple of musicians playing in the streets, some singers coming out, and some puppetry that’s happening. It’s all very reminiscent of a European market, it’s just done at nighttime and it’s all Gothic vendors. You’ll find things that harken to old world Dickensian Christmas, to things that are more modern, like “The Nightmare Before Christmas” type stuff, and everything in between. We really try to focus on the European Christmas folklore and folk characters, everything from the Welsh Mari Lwyd, which is the skeletal horse that they run around in Wales every Christmas and New Year’s, to the Italian La Befana, which is a Christmas witch that flies around and delivers goodies to little kids. The thing that I most look forward to is just the joy and the community that seems to happen as a result, and all of the creativity. We’re getting 50-something makers coming together with these wares that are all individual and beautifully done. Then you’ve got The Wild Hunt, which every single person has taken time and care to put into their costuming, and the costuming is out of this world. It’s really cool. So, I think the creativity and the community is what just really makes me so jazzed. When I hear people walk into the market and they’re like, “Oh my god, these are my people. This is my tribe. Where have these people been?” When I get other people in the community doing that, it really gives me a sense of fulfillment that kind of just makes me emotional. Q: Do you have favorite characters you like to see or dress up as? A: I absolutely love dressing up as the Krampus. One of the things that I also really, really love that we’re showcasing is I made an authentic, Welsh Mari Lwyd out of a horse skull. I really am kind of obsessed with her at the moment, so she’ll be in the she’ll be in the procession this year. Also, this year I’m going as an Austrian schnabelperchten. Schnabel means “bird beak” and perchten means “spirit,” so it’s like this crazy bird spirit that the Austrians would dress up as, and they have these big scissors and these giant brooms, and they would come around and try to make sure that your house was clean during the wintertime. That you had done all your chores, all the laundry was done and everything was put away appropriately. That’s a really old Austrian tradition, and it’s kind of kind of random, but we have two schnabelperchtens in our in our Wild Hunt, and I’m going to be representing one of them. Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever received? A: I don’t know if it’s the best advice I’ve ever received, but it’s some solid advice and it has come from my husband, and was passed down to him from wise people. It’s that it’s not really your job to decide whether your art is good or bad, or it’s what the people want; it’s your job to create it and then allow the people to react to it in the way that they’re going to react. You just create it and move forward because when you get too wrapped up in what people think about stuff, you’re just going to stay in one position and stay frozen. Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you? A: Oh, people are always surprised to find out that I have seasonal affective disorder and that I really don’t like the dark. They really are shocked by that. My birthday is in July, so I’m a Cancer and I really kind of come alive during the spring and summertime when we shift to the longer days. I am super productive during that period of time. I don’t like when it gets darker earlier, I don’t like rainy days. I’ve lived my entire life between San Diego County and Tucson, Ariz., so I have a very intimate and strong connection to the sun. Q: Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend. A: Maybe a Friday night at North County Wine Company, getting some wine with my husband and maybe having a sandwich. Then, going to a nice, big, specialty, curated market that’s full of all of my fun friends and people in my community, and doing some shopping and buying things that I think are spooky and fun and eclectic and unique. Then probably having some drinks at the Twisted Horn. ...read more read less