“If large group of young men in masks roamed the streets on any other night of the year, the police would be called out in an instant,” said Wiesflecker. An alcohol ban has also been difficult to enforce. In the 19th century, evil Krampus spirits began to accompany Sankt Nikolaus impersonators on home visits and would sometimes cross the threshold to scare children, but their anarchic energy was usually restrained and controlled by the benign man with the bushy white beard.įuelled by political support for distinctly Austrian folk customs, Krampus began to emancipate from his master in the late 20th century, and in recent years the appetite for large-scale “Krampus runs” has grown across Austria: at an event Salzburg on 23 November this year, about 1,000 goat-demons roamed the streets of the city.Īttempts to impose order on the chaos by assigning each Krampus with a starting number and setting up barriers between the evil spirits and spectators have not always been successful. In its original form, Wiesflecker argues, Krampus was not so much a standalone devil figure but a domesticated sidekick of Sankt Nikolaus, the Father Christmas-like character who gifts German and Austrian children with presents on 6 December. In Schwoich in the Tyrol region, three Krampuses set their costumes on fire and suffered burns after accidentally setting off a box of fireworks.Īccording to Peter Wiesflecker, a historian of Austrian culture and customs, the spike in the number of complaints can be explained by how the cult of the Krampus has evolved into a mass spectacle. In the town of Neumarkt in Lower Austria, a man dressed as a Percht, an Alpine pagan goddess, sustained severe neck injuries when a spectator yanked his mask by the horns. A traditional Krampus run in the village of Biberwier.
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