According to a piece I heard on NPR this morning, the antidote to Christmas saccharine is the Krampus. The Krampus is a creature from Alpine folklore. It 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 to its lair presumably to devour them. The creature works with St. Nick, who rewards the good children. St. Nick, however, either can't or won't interfere with the work of the Krampus. In places in the U.S. there are Krampus parties, and the traditional Krampuslauf: a procession of people dressed as Krampus, walking through the streets with noisemakers. In this age of no-consequences, I think this is a good story for children everywhere.
4 comments:
What!? It's not creepy enough to have a round elf sneak into your house รก la the big bad wolf to steal cookies and milk, while forcing your parents to precipitate the current financial crisis by agreeing to an unreasonably burdensome mortgage to pay for gifts just to meet the expectations of their children?
Ah crap, whats the cut-off age for Krumpus? I just watched a Christmas special in which two guys thought they were tracking a Krumpus after a string of murders leading up to Christmas.
Jim, I'm not so sure what you describe is all that creepy. First, Santa does not STEAL the milk and cookies. Think of it as protection money. And forcing parents to borrow money and spend beyond their means is not creepy. It may be harsh and oppressive but it's not creepy.
Of course, a fat old guy dressed in some weird outfit sneaking into peoples' homes in the middle of the night while everyone's asleep is a bit creepy.
Krampus is not to be trifled with as you can see from this video from a village in South Tirol (a province in northern Italy).
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