The days have grown shorter; the nights have grown longer—
Our spirits are weaker, and have to grow stronger
We think we’re all right, but we couldn’t be wronger
It’s Christmas—it’s time to beware!
The Krampus is coming—he’s horribly scary!
His job is quite simple; he’s coming to carry
Bad children away, so we’d better be wary
And only go out if you dare!
More, after the jump:
Via NPR… The Krampus! Comments on the site leave me uncertain–as with most ancient customs, by the time they reach our modern ears there are several different versions of “the truth”–but it appears likely that, prior to Christianity, the Krampus was the “bad cop” to the proto-Santa’s “good cop”, or perhaps that the Krampus was a terrifying but good entity sent to frighten away the night, resulting in the beginning of longer days and shorter nights… for a while, at least.
“The Holidays” are not merely Christmas, as I continue to learn. As one who loves variety, I approve. And… if any of my readers can shed any more light on the Krampus, I would love to hear it!
Well, I was born in Austria, and I grew up with visits from the Krampus on December 6th, where he would accompany St. Nikolaus who brought gifts to the good children and threaten to take away or at least spank the naughty ones. I can still remember the nightmares this gave me. And I had nothing to be afraid of as I was a darned “good” child, going to a private Catholic school and everything.
Also, for some background: Austria is very much Roman Catholic, and the Christmas presents are brought by the “Christkind” (baby Jesus) on the 24th, not Santa Claus.
More on Saint Nicholas and Krampus here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas#Central_Europe
Frankly, it breaks my heart when I see them approach the children in this video.
I didn’t realize Krampus was actually a thing. I thought Scott Kurtz made it up.
How odd – my mother is from the Netherlands, so we learned about Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). So our bogeyman (though it wasn’t as big a deal for my generation) was a moorish slave of St. Nicholas’, who would take you away to Spain. It was all a bit jumbled, but I remember hearing about how my uncle got stuffed into Black Pete’s sack when he was a boy for having misbehaved (he was not carried away of course, but I imagine it would have been terrifying). Funny to hear that it was a monster in other European cultures.
Aha!! Synchronicity.
I don’t believe that I’ve ever heard of Krampus until about 2 days ago while reading “Off The Road” by Jack Hitt. And here it comes up again on Digital Cuttlefish… seriously spooky. ;-)
My Austrian parents (from the mountains) always told me that Krampus was an old tradition which was tamed by the Church, and had St. Nick added to it. The earlier Krampuslauf had no good cop, and had little to do with children.
Christmas is just getting more and more confusing to me.