DER GEISCHDERSCHTRUTZ - PARADE OF SPIRITS: PHILADELPHIA

  The 14th Annual  PARADE OF SPIRITS ( DER GEISCHDERSCHTRUTZ ) Liberty Lands Park 913 N. 3rd Street Philadelphia, PA Saturday, December 14, 2024 15:30/3:30 PM PARTICIPATORY PARADE:  The Parade of Spirits is a family-friendly, grassroots, community-led event rooted originally in Alpine Germanic and Pennsylvania Dutch, but we encourage participants to share expressions from all cultures and backgrounds. Participants are to dress up in costumes reflecting the shady, shadowy, or downright dark-side characters from lore around the world. Costumes may be as simple as donning ghoulish makeup to appear as a spirit on the Wild Hunt to as elaborate as a full-on Krampus costume. Hand-made or hand-assembled costuming is preferred, though commercial Krampus costumes are welcomed. BRING NOISEMAKERS! This is most certainly -not- a quiet event! Assemble in Liberty Lands Park (913 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA) anytime around 15:30/3:30 PM. Opening remarks begin just prior to sunset, an...

Costume Idea: Der Holzhacker For a generally cheery, agricultural people, we Urglaawer sure do like our shadowy entities. One whom we have talked about in the past has yet to make an appearance at the Parade of Spirits because this entity is so shifty that we barely know where to start.  Vorsicht! Der Holzhacker Deep in the Dunkelgegend, at the base of the World Tree, in the darkest of the realms, there is a forest. The forest is dense, and there is a sense of enchantment combined with an eeriness that simultaneous calls to and pushes away the souls that are making their journey to The Mill.  Somewhere among the trees and the thickets is a strange entity. No one knows what the true nature or appearance of this being is. We only know that two people could be looking at this entity and seeing a completely different facade.  This being is known by a few names in Pennsylvania Dutch: der Holzhacker, der Holzmann, der Miessler, and in English, this being is most dramatically ca...

DER GEISCHDERSCHTRUTZ: PARADE OF SPIRITS: The two Germanic goddesses who turn up heavily in the Pennsylvania Dutch and German lore of this time of year are strongly associated with geese and birch trees. We could use some geese in the Parade. Plant spirits can also be in the Wild Hunt, so, as strange as it might sound, the spirit of a dead birch tree could walk, too! And, below are some ideas that would be awesome to have participants bring into the Parade. Grimm’s Description of Some on the Hunt: “ in front of the troop came an old man with a white staff, the trusty Eckhart, warning people to move out of the way, and some even to go home, lest harm befall them. Behind him, some came riding, some walking, and among them persons who had lately died. One rode a two -legged horse, one was tied down on a wheel which moved of itself, others ran without any heads, or carried their legs across their shoulders.’ ‘A drunken peasant, who would not make room for the host, was caught up and set up...

  The 14th Annual  PARADE OF SPIRITS ( DER GEISCHDERSCHTRUTZ ) Liberty Lands Park 913 N. 3rd Street Philadelphia, PA Saturday, December 14, 2024 15:30/3:30 PM PARTICIPATORY PARADE:  The Parade of Spirits is a family-friendly, grassroots, community-led event rooted originally in Alpine Germanic and Pennsylvania Dutch cultures, but we encourage participants to share expressions from all cultures and backgrounds. Participants are to dress up in costumes reflecting the shady, shadowy, or downright dark-side characters from lore around the world. Costumes may be as simple as donning ghoulish makeup to appear as a spirit on the Wild Hunt to as elaborate as a full-on Krampus costume. Hand-made or hand-assembled costuming is preferred, though commercial Krampus costumes are welcomed. BRING NOISEMAKERS! This is most certainly -not- a quiet event! Assemble in Liberty Lands Park (913 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA) anytime around 15:30/3:30 PM. Opening remarks begin just prior to s...

Stacey Lynne Stewart and Robert L. Schreiwer are looking to increase the presence of devotional items to more deities within the Urglaawe context. This year (2023), we are encouraging people to write poems or stories, draw/paint pictures, create images, sing songs, and more to the goddess Saaga. Saaga is a goddess associated with creativity, art, music, and history, so it is appropriate that we begin this annual project in Her honor. Works submitted to us prior to December 5, 2023, will be set on the stage, read, or otherwise utilized at Philadelphia’s Parade of Spirits on Saturday, December 9, 2023. Those who are able to attend the Parade are invited to read their work or sing their song during the entertainment portion of the Parade. Who Is Saaga? Allow us to introduce Her to you through a poem Stacey wrote last year:   She is the story She is the song She is the poem  She is the laughter She is the tear She is the memory  She is the grand painting of the master...

12th Annual PARADE OF SPIRITS ( DER GEISCHDERSCHTRUTZ ) Liberty Lands Park 913 N. 3rd Street Philadelphia, PA Saturday, December 10, 2022 16:00/4:00 PM PARTICIPATORY PARADE: The Parade of Spirits is a family-friendly, grassroots, community-led event rooted originally in Alpine Germanic and Pennsylvania Dutch, but we encourage participants to share expressions from all cultures and backgrounds. Participants are to dress up in costumes reflecting the shady, shadowy, or downright dark-side characters from lore around the world. Costumes may be as simple as donning ghoulish makeup to appear as a spirit on the Wild Hunt to as elaborate as a full-on Krampus costume. Hand-made or hand-assembled costuming is preferred, though commercial Krampus costumes are welcomed. BRING NOISEMAKERS! This is most certainly -not- a quiet event! Assemble in Liberty Lands Park (913 N. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA) anytime around 16:00/4:00 PM. Opening remarks begin just prior to sunset, and the Parade steps ont...