Kinky Krampus

On December 5th, the Alpine character Krampus shares the Holidaze folklore stage in conjunction with the Feast of St. Nicholas. The devious deity who takes delight in kidnapping and punishing the “naughty” children, Krampus is usually depicted as a hairy, horned, humanoid creature, wearing chains and carrying a bundle of birch sticks. Though anthropologists speculate a pre-Christian presence, it seems Krampus was popularized as the evil counterpart to St. Nick around the 17th century.

Christian cultures were known to find an angle to incorporate beloved pagan roots from the Old Ways into their own Holy Agenda: “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’.” Nowadays, those who dress as Krampus meander throughout their town expecting neighboring shops to have free shots of Schnapps. Essentially a bizarro bar crawl derived from the traditional parade known as “Krampuslauf”, Krampus…