You better be good…

It’s an empty threat in America. You’d better be good for goodness sake - Santa Claus is coming to town, and he knows if you’ve been bad or good. You’ve been bad, let’s say. We all have been. What happens? Does Santa actually put coal in anyone’s stocking these days? Do presents fail to appear under the tree, do any of us lack for cookies and fudge? Does a devil come running through town and switch you, growling and snarling?

Americans restrict their devils to Halloween; Austrians accept them as a natural part of the Christmas season, hanging grotesque masks next to Santa hats in store windows. While we celebrate advent by shopping and eyeing the cookie plate at holiday parties, Austrians take to the streets to be abused by Christmas devils – Krampus. Most small towns hold a Krampus Laufen, a devil run – at the appointed time the locals line the streets and scream as hordes of Krampus surge through the town, stopping along the roar with blood lust and rush the barricades.

Evil spirits, Krampus are the dark side of St. Nicholas, who usually leads the procession in a white cloak and bishop’s hat, calmly preceding chaos. The Krampus themselves come in many variations but always have large spiraling horns, heavy thick hair, grotesque faces and heavy, clanking bells tied around their ankles and waists. This unlikely pair used to visit children’s houses, the good kids getting a treat or a toy from St. Nicholas and the naughties a switch from the Krampus – or in extreme cases, an abduction to parts unknown in the large black sack he carried. The door to door visits have ceased, thankfully, but bad children of all ages are still at risk in early December in Alpine villages of otherwise saccharine cuteness.

Driving through the countryside we see many banners announcing the coming Krampuslaufen; luckily for us, Hallein was having one of its own. We’d seen Krampus before – last year they were terrorizing a small Christkindlmarkt we visited, tromping around the courtyard of a local castle and causing great spillage of gluhwein. I felt about them much the same way I remember feeling about Mickey Mouse and his cohorts as a child: I desperately wanted the glow of recognition that comes from interacting with the creature, but I was simultaneously frightened and horrified by the idea of being close to it. As the Krampus clanked past me, I caught a whiff of sulfur and history in the icy air, and hearing the children squeal with gleeful fear I wished that we still had a dark side to our Santa.

We clearly underestimated the popularity of the Krampus this year – at a quarter hour before the appointed time of the run, we were at the back of a five deep crowd along the barricades lining Hallein’s main street. Stretched high on my toes and straining I could only make out the top of St. Nicholas’ mitre and the tips of fire from the flame tossers, but I could hear the Krampus coming. Heavy boots laid down the bass for a cacophony of growls, cow bells, and clanking chains, overlaid with the screams of the locals. As they came closer the sound intensified and the energy moved through the crowd and then I could see curled horns and great shaggy heads dipping and moving, dancing to some ancient and dark beat. Lit by torches, the Krampus flickered. High above the street, their shadow doppelgangers danced, a whole new troop of devils moving along the hundreds of years old facades of the buildings, more menacing and grotesque in their distorted state than in the reality on the street.

We slipped away long before the stream of Krampus had run out – the air was brittle and frozen and we were dreaming of roast pork and schnapps and warm conversation. As we walked through the quiet streets of Hallein, footsteps echoing on the age old cobblestones, we could still hear the din of the crowd swelling behind us: clearly this revelry was going to continue for some time. We are, all of us, still a little superstitious, perhaps a little pagan, at heart – in the clear moonlight of an alpine December, that wasn’t so hard to embrace.

Comments

[Cindy]

Yes. Yes he puts coal in your stocking. I know. I found coal in my stocking year before last.

I'm putting in Lil T's stocking this year! ;P

[bob]

finally i have found a new name that fits ...krampus