When Krampus Comes

Cristian MITITEAN
There is a man who spreads joy amongst children once a year. They lay awake and in eager
anticipation of his arrival. The cookies have been baked and the milk has been poured, but as the
shadowy figure approaches, their excitement and joy turns into fear and despair, for this man is
not Saint Nicholas nor Santa Claus, this man is no man at all, this is Krampus, the shadow of
Christmas.
The half-goat, half-demon figure has often been described as the shadow of Saint Nicholas,
but in some countries it is believed that Krampus accompanies Saint Nicholas during Christmas
punishing those children who have misbehaved in contrast to Saint Nicholas who rewards the well
behaved children.

Krampus has been feared and celebrated in folklore for hundreds of years and his appearance is
that of nightmares, with large arched horns, dark hair, sharp fangs, long claws and a long pointed
tongue. He carries around birch sticks that he would use to beat misbehaving children with, on his
back he has a basket or a sack that he would throw those naughty children in. His legs are bound
with chains which rattle as he approaches.
I personally never seen Krampus as a force of true evil, to me Krampus symbolizes the need of
balance, there must be rewards and consequences for the actions we make, if receiving no presents
from Santa Claus is not enough to dissuade the bad behavior of children then surely a visit from
Krampus will.
I experienced Krampuslauf ( a festival in which individuals would often dress up as Krampus and
tend to scare children) on my skin in the period of Christmas, as I, my dad and my brother were
going home, three guys , probably drunk, dressed as Krampus, jumped in front of the car screaming
something I couldn`t understand and then they just ran away. It was weird because we live in a
small city in Romania and we don’t celebrate anything related to Krampus.