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Horror For The Holidays: Meet The Anti-Santa
by Peter Crimmins

For generations the Christmas season has been infused with sweetness, but some families in Philadelphia are adding a dash of horror.

There are no Christmas lights up at Janet Finegar's house in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia. She does not deck her halls with boughs of holly. Instead, hundreds of rib bones leftover from a neighborhood barbecue hang on a clothesline strung across her backyard. They're bleaching in the sun.

"They have been scraped, boiled, scraped again, bleached and are now strung on strands and hanging out to dry," she says. "They smell. Rib bones, as it turns out, are incredibly nasty."

She will drape the bones over herself and wear them like a grisly tunic. It's her Krampus costume.

The Krampus is a character from European Alpine folklore, common in Austria and Switzerland. The creature stands on two hooves and has horns growing out of its skull. An extremely long tongue hangs out of its mouth, and it carries a basket to haul away naughty children.

For hundreds of years, the Krampus and Saint Nicholas have worked a kind of good cop-bad cop routine. Saint Nick rewards the good children; Krampus terrorizes the bad.

For Finegar, it's the perfect antidote for Christmas.

"If everything is sweet and beautiful and lovely and the most wonderful time of the year, some people, like me, start to get a little nauseated, want a little salt to go with the sugar," she says. "I think there [are] a lot of people out there who enjoy the idea of having a little salt."

Around the country, there are Krampus parties and club nights in December, where people dress in leftover Halloween costumes to drink and dance.

Finegar is helping to organize a traditional Krampuslauf: a procession of people dressed as Krampus, walking through the streets with noisemakers. The idea for the Krampuslauf in Philadelphia came from Amber Dorko Stopper, a mother of two.

"Spooky and scary has had a place in Christmas historically — A Christmas Carol is a ghost story with scary things in it," she says. "I hate to see everything get watered down because I remember how much fun those things are."

Krampus parades are rare in the United Sates. Last year, Joseph Ragan organized one in Portland, Ore., as a reaction to the way Christmas dominates the winter season.

"Of all the 10,000 holidays that can be celebrated, we just have this one particular version of this one particular holiday really shoved down our throats for months at a time — in the most saccharine form," he says.

Consider that Christmas muzak you hear in grocery stores before Thanksgiving. That really annoys Stopper. She's a fan of horror movies, and enjoys the folk tales of Krampus stealing children, throwing them into icy rivers or eating them alive.

"I realized really quickly how that was not popular in this time period. As a parent of small children that was seen as suspicious behavior almost immediately," she says. "Everything is so soft-pedaled these days with kids to the point where you're not showing any kind of conflict to your kids, much less folklore."

But even Stopper admits there are limits.

"Since both of our children are adopted, we're a little extra sensitive to talking about being taken away," Stopper says. "But we did tell them that, 'He'll take you to his house, you'll have to eat spicy vegetables and watch boring adult television — and then he'll bring you home.' "

The horror. The horror.

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From Wikipedia:

Krampus is a mythical creature recognized in Alpine countries.[1] According to legend, Krampus accompanies St. Nicholas during the Christmas season, warning and punishing bad children, in contrast to St. Nicholas, who gives gifts to good children. When the Krampus finds a particularly naughty child, it stuffs the child in its sack and carries the frightened thing away to its lair, presumably to devour for its Christmas dinner.

In the Alpine regions, Krampus is represented by a beast like creature, generally demonic in appearance. Traditionally young men dress up as the Krampus in Austria, southern Bavaria and South Tyrol during the first week of December, particularly on the evening of 5 December, and roam the streets frightening children with rusty chains and bells.[2]

In the aftermath of the 1934 Austrian Civil War, the Krampus tradition was prohibited by the Dollfuss regime[3] under the the Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front) and the Christian Social Party but the tradition returned after the end of World War II.

From Steven Colbert:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/258162/december-09-2009/the-blitzkrieg-on-grinchitude---hallmark---krampus

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Well we learn something every day. I'll bet if I researched it, I would find out that Krampus predates Christmas. Might be cool to see just how a character like him originated.

Thanks Bryant

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Originally Posted by Mark Simmons:
Well we learn something every day. I'll bet if I researched it, I would find out that Krampus predates Christmas. Might be cool to see just how a character like him originated.

Thanks Bryant

One thing I read was that it originated from some pagan tradition involving the Earth Goddess and chasing away winter.  If I find anything better I'll post it.

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Here is an article I found that was published in the scholarly journal Folklore.  Sorry for the rough formatting, its copy and pasted from a .pdf.

The Krampus in Styria
by MAURICE BRUCE
Folklore, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Mar., 1958), pp. 45-47

SAINT Nicholas' Eve - the fifth of December - is celebrated in the
Styrian valleys of Austria with performances of the 'Nikolospiel'. The
white-bearded Saint Nikolaus, dressed in splendid robes and complete
with mitre and crosier, enters each house in order to fill the childrens'
shoes with small gifts.

Behind the good saint hovers the black, shaggy, goat-horned figure of
the Krampus. Cloven hooves and a long tail are conspicuous features of
this roaring, prancing Satyr who rattles the chains that hang from his
wrists, and brandishes a bundle of birch-twigs which he wields with
more energy than discrimination.

Although he is 'officially' the servant of Nikolaus, the Krampus does
much as he likes and always succeeds in 'stealing the show'. His habit of
throwing naughty children into the wooden tub which hangs at his back,
and thence into the nearest stream, earns him a deep respect. It is usually
the strongest of the village youths who compete for the honour of 'playing
the Devil' for, under the anonymity of the horned mask with its
lolling tongue, many an old score may be settled and many a prank
played.

The Krampus is known by many names in Styria, 'Bartl', 'Niglobartl',
'Wubartl', and sometimes 'Klaubauf', but, whatever his name,
there seems to be little doubt as to his true identity for, in no other form
is the full regalia of the Horned God of the Witches so well preserved.
The birch - apart from its phallic significance - may have a connection
with the initiation rites of certain witch-covens; rites which entailed
binding and scourging as a form of mock-death. The chains could have
been introduced in a Christian attempt to 'bind the Devil' but again
they could be a remnant of pagan initiation rites.

The 'Krampuskarten't, hose greetings cards which are exchangedi n
Austria on St Nicholas' Day, vary like our own Valentine Cards from
the serious to the coarsely humorous. The verses stress the importance
of good behaviour if one hopes to receive a gift from Nikolaus - and
escape the attentions of Krampus.

FiUr's Schlimme gibt's vom Krampus Strafe,
St Nikolaus belohnt das Brave.'

or,

St Nikolaus schickt Dir die Schuh',
Krampus liszt Dich heut in Ruh'!
WEILST BRAV WARST!2

The Mariazell district has a St Nicholas' Day practice called 'Schifferlsetzen'.
The children make small boats of paper or wood and, quietly
and secretly, leave them where parents and friends may find them and
fill them with good things. Once filled the ships are just as quietly removed
by their owners, the more enterprising of whom may have whole
fleets 'at sea'.

Each ship has a flag with the owners name and a verse written on it.

O heiliger Sankt Nikolaus,
ich fahr' mit meinem Schifferl aus.
Hier setz' ich jetzt mein Schifferl nieder,
die Frau da ist ja gar nicht z'wider,
der Herr, der ist ein guter Mann,
der fiillt mir g'wisz mein Schifferl an.3

Another verse in the Styrian dialect contains a reference to the 'Ruten',
the birch carried by Krampus. Small gold-painted birch bundles are
often presented by Krampus to each family. The birches are hung on a
wall as a form of decoration and seem to be renewed each year particularly
in those houses where the behaviour of the children merits the
application of corporal correction.

Mei liabe Frau Mutter, i hitt' a Gebitt,
i setz' da das Schifferl, verwirf mir es nit.
I bin ja glei z'frieden, es braucht nit viel sein,
a Nuss'n und a Ruten wird hdiufi' g'nug sein.4

The 'Nikolospiel' takes on a more highly developed dramatic form in
the district of Mariazell. The players include the 'Schabminner' covered
completely with their mantles of straw and wearing huge antlers. Each
one carries a long whip which he cracks loudly as the procession moves
from one 'Gasthaus' to the next. Even in this elaborate form of the
'Nikolospiel' with 'Rauhen' (demons of darkness), 'Schabminner', and
the inevitable 'Habergeisz', it is still the Krampus who plays, or rather
steals the leading role.

Unlike the 'Black Peter' of Holland, the Styrian Krampus has lost
none of his pagan wildness. He is still the Black He-Goat of the Witches
- the anonymous Grand Master leaping and roaring in an ecstasy of
Divine possession.

On the outskirts of Graz, Leoben, and Bruck an der Mur he is still to
be seen at his wildest and best - 'schwoarz und zottat wiar a recht a
wilda Bir'5 - a terrifying, elemental figure beside the pale form of the
gentle Nikolaus who, after all, is but a Bishop and in spite of his ecclesiastical
Authority cannot outshine the God.


1 'The Krampus punishes the wicked,
St Nicholas rewards the good.'

2 St Nicholas sends you shoes,
The Krampus leaves you in peace today!
BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN GOOD!'
Chocolateb oots are a favouritef orm of present for St Nicholas' Day.

3 'Oh Holy St Nicholas,
I set sail with my little ship.
Here I drop anchor,
Where the Mistress is not contrary,
And the Master is a kind man,
Who will certainly fill my little ship.'

4'Dear Mother of mine, hear my wish,
My little ship is anchored, please do not scorn it.
I am easily satisfied and don't ask for much,
Some nuts and a birch will be quite enough.'

5 'black and shaggy like a great wild bear'.

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Well, Santa Claus isn't always that goody-goody either....



:-P

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Oh!  I think the 1st time I ever heard of this was on a Venture Brothers' episode.  Dr Orpheus had to be called in the get rid of the creature.  Lol!

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OMGosh!  I was watching Anthony Bourdaine last night and he was talking about the Krampus!  ROFL!  Thought of you guys.