Christmas means Krampus.

In many ways, Christmas in Austria means much the same as it does in England; Christmas trees, Christmas carols, a time for family and friends, mulled wine (or Gluhwein as it's called here), roasted chestnuts (or Heisse Maronis) and general festivities. In other ways, however, it definitely does not. By this, I am of course referring to the Krampus.

From the first of December onwards, men (and women) all over Austria will dress up as these beast-like creatures, and terrorise the citizens, especially the children. They are usually brown or black, and wear a terrifying, but intricate, mask, have horns sometimes up to three feet long, and walk with cow bells attached to them, so you can always hear when they're coming. Oh, and they also carry a whip, with which they hit people so hard that 9 times out of 10, it will bruise.

A Krampus carrying two sticks!

The Krampus is the antithesis of Saint Nikolaus. Instead of rewarding the good children with gifts, as St Nikolaus does, the Krampus is said to capture particularly naughty children in his sack and carry them away to his lair in the mountains. The feast of St. Nikolaus is celebrated on the 6th December here, and he is often accompanied by Krampusse. The night before, however, the Krampusse often take to the streets by themselves, in a so-called Krampuslauf (Krampus run).

Unfortunately, I missed the Salzburg Krampuslauf on the 5th December, as I had to teach in the evening school. I met up with the others afterwards, however, and what horror stories they had to tell! Almost all of them had been hit at least once by the Krampus, and one of the group had even been carried off over the shoulder by one of them. Here are a couple of photos the other TAs took that evening:

The next evening, I was lucky enough (is lucky the right word?!) to go to a Krampuslauf in a small village outside of Salzburg, Sankt Johann. My host family told me that the Salzburger Krampuslauf is a lot more touristy than the ones in the smaller villages. In Salzburg, they are only allowed to have whips made out of cow/horse hairs for example, whereas in the smaller villages the whips (or ruten) are made out of birch sticks - and so naturally tut a lot more weh! They also said that the Krampusse from the villages are usually more vicious, as the events are a lot more alcohol fueled than the inner city ones. Sure enough, the Krampusse in Sankt Johann were separated from the crowd by barriers, whereas in Salzburg they'd been free to wander around the crowd, both police and ambulance were on stand-by, and it looked like the sticks hurt a lot more than the animal hairs. Each Krampus has a number attached to them, so that if they are badly behaved, they can be easily identified and banned from any future Krampuslauf. We saw numbers right up into the high 600's, and so I would guess that there were about 700 Krampusse that evening. 

Leaning over the barrier to attack the crowd

Close-up of a mask

One group of Krampus make an entrance

The scare/thrill you get when a Krampus comes near you is hard to explain, but I would liken it to that of the adrenaline you get on a rollercoaster. It's something you're apprehensive about at first (when you fist see the Krampus), fun in the middle (when the Krampus comes near), then you get a huge sense of relief once it's over (once the Krampus as left and you are unscathed). 

At various points in the Krampuslauf, people (usually teenage boys), would jump over the barriers and away from safety, the Krampus would then swarm around them, and they usually ended up getting beaten to a pulp. I just don't understand why someone would do that?! Here's a blurry picture of it happening, I think I was in too much shock to keep the camera steady :

As we were all stood a safe distance from the barriers, none of the group got hurt. As soon as the barriers were taken down however, we made a bit of a run for it. At a lot of these events, things have really kicked off towards the end of the evening, when things are a bit less controlled, and the alcohol has started to take its effect. We'd left the main area and were on our way to the train station, and saw a small Krampus group across the road. My stomach instantly dropped - there were no barriers now, we definitely weren't safe. As we were a group of 8 or 9 girls, we naturally attracted their attention and they immediately ran over. I spotted a Saint Nikolaus walking at the front of our group, so joined him and luckily the Krampusse left me alone. Unfortunately, the others weren't so lucky, and most were hit at least 3 times each. There were a lot of stinging legs on that train journey home!

Good Old Saint Nick!

There was another Krampuslauf on the weekend my family were here. This time it was a lot closer to the city centre, so the Krampus were not so vicious and in my (now hardened) opinion, not as scary. My family, as with many others, simply could not get over the idea that people were allowed to dress up as the monsters and run around hitting, (and in some villages even hospitalising) the locals. My brother, in particular, was terrified of the Krampus. When one came near him, (and do bear in mind this was the evening before his 18th birthday), he could only hide behind my mum and even pushed her towards the Krampus, instead of himself!

Hopefully that's made this, quite frankly, crazy Austrian tradition a little clearer. In case it hasn't, however, this article explains it all very well, and was written by a friend of mine in England who spent an Erasmus year here in Salzburg last year. All that's left to say on the matter of the Krampus, is that I would much rather take coal for being a naughty child anyday!

We caught a Krampus on their break - photo op!