DER GEISCHDERSCHTRUTZ - PARADE OF SPIRITS: PHILADELPHIA

PARADE OF SPIRITS OFFICIAL POST REMARKS ON 2024 (Including a few "rules" and expectations): This will be posted in multiple places. Please do read! Our event is shaping up to be off the hook this year! Our blog provides the back story that has been the functional basis of the Parade and much of the mythology that is depicted emerges from Pennsylvania Dutch folklore and tradition. Similar "shadow side" concepts exist in cultures around the world, and we invite people to share their depictions of their liminal beings. This is an inclusive event. No racist or bigoted expressions will be tolerated. Although, in the past, the Pennsylvania Dutch traditions were to color the face of certain characters in coal or black makeup to represent entry to homes through chimneys, this is not acceptable given the history of blackface in other, racism-based contexts as an oppressive or mocking tool. This event is about celebrating our diversity in our shared space, so Gedreier Eckhart...

  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...