By Phil Cain
BBC News, Graz
Pro-Christkind followers do not welcome the presence of reindeers
A candle-lit procession makes a solemn passage through jolly,
rosy-cheeked throngs standing at mulled wine and chestnut stands in the
old quarter of Graz, Austria's second city.
The cause? To save Christkind, their Christmas gift giver, from the red
and white menace of Santa Claus.
Generations of awe-struck Austrians have heard a tinkling bell and found
Christkind has miraculously left them a fully decorated tree and
presents after dark on Christmas Eve.
To some, he, she or it is a winged angel, but to most just a half-seen
flash of light through a window. It is part of a reflective Christmas
tradition, which has little of the bacchanalian revelry to which many
British look forward.
Instead, the emphasis is on peace, calm, hearth, home and family, who
are central to most Austrians' lives all year round.
"Christkind is a wonderfully beautiful Christmas story," says Katrina Scheuer, a 21-year-old student, one of those who joined in the parade.
Santa, on the other hand, she says, was invented by Coca-Cola and is
simply an outrider to the arrival of soulless consumerism.
(...) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8405501.stm
http://www.pro-christkind.at/kernel.php?id=c_news
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