Pastor Mark Lugo prays in front of City Hall on Friday. Credit: Sanford Nowlin

Roughly 30 people from evangelical churches gathered in front of City Hall Friday to ask local officials to shut down San Antonio’s first Krampus Parade, an event they denounced as “demonic” and sure to bring disaster.

The parade, modeled after those held in Germany and parts of Central Europe, will take place Thursday, Dec. 5 and pay homage to a folkloric demon who punishes naughty kids at Christmastime. While the parades feature people dressed as the horned and menacing Krampus, they don’t celebrate devil worship.

Even so, during the hour-long City Hall rally, preachers and members of their flocks took turns denouncing SA’s planned parade as something that will terrify children and usher in perversion. During the speeches, crowd members held their hands up in praise and periodically interjected shouts of “Amen!” and “Hallelujah!”

“We’re here to educate the community of what Krampus is and what the leadership of the King William district is doing, and what they’re inviting,” said Mark Lugo, pastor of SA Impact Ministries and San Antonio director of At His Feet Ministries. “We’re standing as spiritual leaders that oversee this city, and we’re saying they’re opening a demonic realm in San Antonio.”

Lugo is also an outspoken Trump supporter who peddled MAGA merchandise through At His Feet Ministries during election season, social media videos show.

Attendees of Friday’s anti-Krampus rally raise their hands as a speaker rails against the planned parade. Credit: Sanford Nowlin

During the rally, speakers urged Mayor Ron Nirenberg, City Manager Erik Walsh, members of City Council and King William Association President John Doski, a local physician, to block the Krampus Parade from taking place. No city personnel appeared to be in attendance at the City Hall gathering.

The parade will start at Blue Star Arts Complex and wind through the King William Historic District, a south-of-downtown neighborhood founded by German immigrants. It will end in the Rathskeller basement bar at Hermann Sons Ballroom, a gathering place established by a mutual aid society for German immigrants.

San Antonio Krampus Parade Grand Marshal Bob Crittenden, a five-time Fiesta commissioner, last week told the Current the event is intended to be a fun way to recognize the area’s strong Germanic roots and revitalize old traditions.

A rally attendee holds a sign while listening to speakers. Credit: Stephanie Koithan

However, those rallying in front of City Hall had a distinctly different view.

They warned that the festival would invite calamity and lead San Antonio away from its roots as a “Christian city.” At least two speakers cited natural disasters that struck Brazil after a parade there that they alleged celebrated demonic forces. Pressed for more information on the incident, they said the Brazilian parade wasn’t Krampus-related, and they were unable to offer additional details.

One speaker also blamed Mardi Gras in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina and similar celebrations for hurricanes and power outages in Puerto Rico. Multiple speakers argued the Krampus parade would “open up a portal” and invite death and destruction upon San Antonio.

“This is real; you’re going to open up a window,” said David Rodriguez of People’s House Church. “At the end [of the Krampus Parade] — I read the article — they’re going to go to the park and do incantations and spells with the curanderos and the witchdoctors for practicing witchcraft. We want to warn your family that your sons and daughters will turn to pornography and perversion, incest, rape, murder — that’s what it’s all about.”

The Current is unaware of any news articles referring to incantations, spells or witchcraft being practiced as part of the parade.

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This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 10, 2024.