More On Krampus
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 24th, 2011
From 2008 (with comments retained)…
The Krampus is generally associated with the date December 5th, but, in general, is part of the Yuletide traditions in the European Middle Ages down through festivals today.
For more, see: Krampus
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
In some regions of Germany, for example Suebia, there are several folkloristic carneval-characters (not really mythological) with fur and horns, for example the Aland, which wears furs of sheep and has small curved horns and long lower canines.
Amusing to see the association with ‘Sinterklaas’ (or St. Nicholaas), as it is celebrated in the Netherlands on the 5th of December. In tradition, Sinterklaas has his own helpers, known as ‘zwarte Piet’ (black Piet) but I’ve never seen an image like this linked to the festivities before. Interesting. 🙂
That is the creepiest holiday creature I have ever seen.
From the images shown here, I suppose there’s a bit of a correlation between the figure of the Krampus in Germanic traditions, and the Spanish figure of ‘El Hombre del Saco’ (the man with the sack). A “mythical” figure used to scare little children, said to take them away in the sack he carried.
Notice that I quoted the word mythical. And that is because the tale of El Hombre del Saco is loosely formed from an actual notorious infanticide case that happened in the Spanish region of Almería in the early XXth century. El Hombre del Saco is also known by another name: El Sacamantecas, which could roughly be translated as ‘the fat-remover’… I guess that gives you a pale idea of the nature of the crime that created this scary legend.
Wow. I thought the Krampus was just made up for the Venture Bros. Christmas special. Colored me educated. Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer (the writer/creators) really know their obscure cultural references.
huh…. ‘the fat remover’.
Santa better load up on weaponry (shotguns, long-range rifles, heat-seeking rocket launchers, TANKS) and watch his back this winter.
Might also be a good idea for him to get some exercise and diet or something.
And I all ways thought that Christmas was all cookies and milk!
If that’s their idea of a yuletide figure I’d hate to see what they came up with for Halloween!! :0
Hi. I got interested in the Krampus tradition while, some german friends came to me the 6th of December to visit with nice costumes: Saint Niklaus, an angel and…the servant Ruprecht. (I was asking all the night “who’s that dark guy?”).
I later found in Wikipedia, under “Pagan Alpine Traditions”, the complexity of the character, the “companions of St. Nicholas”.
Of course you’ll never find them in any christian bible, they are pagan in origin, and they have their origin in old germanic winter rituals. It seems that there was a dark guy, mischievous, non-human creature of the darkness called “Krampus” (Claw), which was under controll of a germanic, white-bearded god (Odin/Woden). Winter was the occasion were the darkness invaded the Earth, so rituals were necessary as protection of winter spirits. Other similar character was a goddess, witch-like called “Perchta” oder “Perchten”. (Any connection with germanic “Nerthus”, a fertility goddess?). I find it interesting that these folkloric rituals are still performed in some alpine towns of Austria, south Germany and Switzerland.
I find the Krampus quite mysterious, some other sources say it is an “incubus”, so an evil creature. But some others say, it can be a troll or a wildman…(A european yeti?) Who knows? Maybe these creatures roamed centuries ago!!
Greetings.
Krampus: the Anti-Santa.