Happy Horrordays!

 

I admit it. I had never heard of the Krampus until this year. How did I miss this? I love Christmas; I love all things horror. I hang Santa skull ornaments, Day of the Dead, zombies, aliens, half-eaten gingerbread men and skeletons on my Christmas tree. I do also have angels, bells, reindeer, snowmen and all those other “appropriate” Christmas ornaments. My daughter so loves all the nonsense I hang on the tree, she is presenting this "Christmas tradition" to her class this week. Let's see how that goes. However, I digress: How did I not know about the Krampus?!!?

In Alpine countries, the Krampus (known as many other names, including Knecht Ruprecht, Certa, Perchten, Black Peter, Schmutzli, Pelznickel and Klaubauf) is St. Nick’s traveling companion on December 6 (in some traditions, he comes out the night before on December 5). St. Nick takes care of the good kids; the Krampus, the bad. Kind of like good cop, bad cop. It seems to be most common in  Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia.

He is usually seen as a terrifying, incubus-like, goat-headed devil. He’s also pretty scary to look at. His job is to take the bad children (you know, the ones who have not been nice, as the song goes) down to hell in baskets after hitting them with chains and switches. Very, very creepy.

Tens of thousands of years ago, the Europeans celebrated mummery (a performance by people wearing masks and costumes) during the Winter Solstice. People would up dress up as animals and mythical characters and walk in parades and create plays. The most common costumes at that time were Old Man Winter and a horned Goat-Man. These were early predecessors of St. Nick and the Krampus.

The Krampus gets his name from "Krampen," the old German word for claw. In the mid-1950s, educators feared that the Krampus might scar children for life. However, in modern times, the Krampus has been mellowed down, with drunken adolescent boys dressing like goat-men and marching in a parade.

When St. Nick “came to America” in the 19^th century, he became Santa Claus, his look changed, he lost Krampus and the only thing that bad American kids now receive is coal in their stocking. A hell of a lot better than being dragged away in a basket!