In Austrian folklore, Krampus was a devil-like figure who appeared alongside Santa during the feast of St. Nicholas, to drive away evil spirits. The duo is still part of the festivities in many parts of central Europe.

Boisterous young men wearing deer horns, masks with battery-powered red eyes, huge fangs, bushy coats of sheep’s fur, and brandishing birchwood rods storm down the streets, confronting spectators gathered to watch the medieval spectacle, which is also staged in parts of nearby Hungary, Croatia and Germany’s Bavaria state.

Anyone who doesn’t dodge or run away fast enough might get swatted — although not hard — with the rod.

Last week, Santa and Krampus received some negative publicity when they were banned from visiting kindergartens in Vienna for scaring some children. Because of this, a prominent Austrian child psychiatrist, Max Friedrich, is aiming to ban Krampus on the basis that the world is filled with enough aggression and violence.

While I agree with him on that issue, I feel that he is promoting hysteria over the few who have suffered “Krampus Trauma.” The answer to this problem is to teach these people how to confront and deal with this fear.

Of course there are those who have taken the Krampus tradition a bit too far, especially after they’ve downed a few beers. In Tyrol, the Krampus actors are required to wear a number to enable law enforcement to weed out and punish the troublemakers.

Source: Reuters