Tag Archives: krampus

Le Pere Fouettard

Context:

The informant – MZ – is a middle-aged woman originally from the French Alps, now living in South Florida. Growing up, her mother was French-Moroccan, and her father was Moroccan-Algerian. She is one of my mother’s close friends. The following is from a conversation in which I asked her to tell me about any French-Moroccan traditions she remembers growing up.

 

Piece:

For us in Europe, all across Europe, when we have parades for Santa, there’s always the bad guy, we used to call him Le Père Fouettard. Fouet means whip, so he was the whipper. So we had this guy who was kind of a monk, with a brown cloak. And he would be along with Santa Claus, along with the parade. And during the parade, we’d have Le Père Fouettard, and it was like, be careful if you don’t behave! The Père Fouettard will come and whip your ass.

 

 

Analysis:

Fairly clearly, Le Pere Fouettard is a variation of Krampus. I think it’s very interesting that, though Krampus is a prominent figure all across Europe, this specific variation exists in France’s Christmas tradition.

German Santa

I interviewed Audrey when I met her in Everybody’s Kitchen, a USC dining hall. Audrey spent some of her childhood in Germany, so she wanted to share some of the German folklore she knew. This includes the legend of the German Santa. The following is lifted from the interview:

 

Audrey: “So I learned this from my fifth grader german teacher when we were learning about German traditions. Okay, so, on St. Nick’s day — the 6th of December — German kids leave their shoes outside the door. Good kids get stuff like candy and toys, and bad kids get coal. But that’s not all bad kids get. German Santa goes into their bedrooms, and puts them in a burlap sack. And then he takes them out back and beats them — just beats them in the sack.” [She mimics the action she is describing]

 

Me: “Did you ever partake in this tradition?”

 

Audrey: “Well, I took part in American St. Nick’s day. I would leave my shoes by the fireplace… and I was never taken out back and beaten in a burlap sack, so I don’t know about that part. But I always got candy and toys in my shoes.”

 

My informant then noted that she vaguely remembers learning that German Santa had an assistant named “Krampus.” She didn’t have enough knowledge to talk about him, though.

 

Analysis

I am aware of the Krampus and the tradition of leaving out shoes, but I’ve never heard of Santa being the one that takes naughty children to be punished. The legend of German Santa seems to be used to scare children into behaving, much like many other fairy tales (Although, this is considered a legend instead of a tale because it takes place in the real world with questionable truth value).

 

Krampus

“Krampus is essentially an Austrian antithesis to Santa. Whereas Santa visits the good kids and gives them gifts, Krampus is said to visit the bad ones and give them coal or take them away. What’s really interesting about this is that many Austrian parents will dress up as Krampus on Christmas, and then actually snatch up their own children or the children of neighbors at night to scare them into being good. It’s kind of terrifying from our perspective, but it’s apparently completely normal in Austria.”

 

This was collected from my friend here at USC, and although she isn’t Austrian herself, her best friend throughout her childhood was fully Austrian. She spent a lot of time with the girl’s Austrian family, especially around holidays, so she is actually pretty familiar with their customs. To her, Krampus isn’t exactly scary, and she kind of has a soft spot in her heart for him, just because it reminds her of her friend’s family. I kind of like the idea of Krampus, just because it’s something so different than what we are used to in America; I don’t think running around pretending to kidnap kids at night would ever fly in the U.S.

Krampus the Evil Elf

L is a 53-year-old homemaker living in Winnetka, IL. L grew up mainly in the northern suburbs of Illinois, but she also lived in Germany and England for a while when she was younger. L speaks English primarily but she is learning French. L attended both the University of Southern California and the University of Wisconsin Madison for her undergraduate college education. L considers herself to be American. She does not really identify with her Welsh ancestry.

L: Krampus is from centuries back in Germany.

Me: So who is Krampus?

L: Krampus was an evil elf who would watch children to make sure they were good and if they weren’t goo then they would punish them. It’s like the the line from Santa Claus is Coming to Town: “He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.” Krampus is always watching.

Me: Did you ever tell your kids about Krampus?

L: No, we told them to look out the back window to see the deer and we told them that they were Santa’s reindeer, and that they better be good or Santa would know. They were so well behaved after that. We also used a garden gnome and told them it was an elf.

Me: Wow, that’s manipulative.

L: Well, folkore is a parent’s way to get their children to behave.

Me: Yeah, I can see that.

L: But my friend Kathy told her children about Krampus to make them behave as children. The kids are still obsessed with Krampus. The have Krampus dolls, they have paraphanalia all over the place.

L does not believe in Krampus, nor did she tell her kids about him. She knows the story because she heard it when she lived in Germany for a few years as a child as well as from her friend who did tell the story of Krampus to her children. Instead of Krampus, a scary figure, L used real things like deer and gnomes to convince her kids that reindeer and elves were watching them to make sure they behaved. This worked well because the kids saw the “elves” and “reindeer” with their own eyes and therefore had less doubt that they were real.

Here is a link to the imdb page for the movie that came out last year based on this tale: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3850590/

Krampus: Addendum

Informant: The Krampus, well the Krampus is a beast-like creature that looks like a devil but with horns and satyr like feet and a really long tongue. He is from the Alpine countries and is related to St. Nicholas day where he follows St. Nicholas around. He punishes naughty children by putting sticks in the shoes they leave out for St. Nicholas, or  even worse he will kidnap naughty children, stuff them in his bag, and steal them away to hell, never to be seen again.

 

The informant is a middle aged mother of two older children. She is a first generation American who was born in Danbury, Connecticut. Her father was born in Oriente, Cuba and her mother was born in Mór, Hungary. The informant and her sisters were told of the Krampus from their mother when they were teenagers. Although the informant does not believe in the Krampus herself, the informant’s mother did. As a child, the informant’s mother would put her shoes out on the Eve of St. Nicholas’s Day, December 5th. On St. Nicholas’s Day, December 6th, is it said that the Krampus would accompany Santa Claus, also known as St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas would put candy and sweets in the shoes of the children who were well-behaved and the Krampus would put sticks and twigs in the shoes of the children who had been naughty. It was also thought that the Krampus would abduct really misbehaved children and take them away to hell.

The informant remembers the tales of the Krampus because she felt it was “funny and creepy at the same time.” The informant felt that Germanic, Hungarian parenting could be very punitive, and still kept “the old-fashioned belief that you can scare children into behaving.”

Although other entires have already discussed the Krampus, they label the Krampus as German folklore. I think it is important to stress that this is not entirely the case, the legend of the Krampus has spread to other countries around Germany like Hungary as the informant who described the Krampus to me is of Hungarian origin. In fact, the legend of the Krampus comes from the folklore of Alpine countries, not solely Germany.

According to the informant, in many countries like Austria, Southern Bavaria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and the Czech Republic, young men dress up as the Krampus and roam the streets frightening children with rusty chains and bells. Also, the informant said that the Krampus is “featured on holiday cards called Krampuskarten.” (Below are some examples of Krampuskarten)

 

    

The Krampus also appears as the subject of a novels such as:

Brom, Gerald. Krampus: The Yule Lord. New York: Harper Voyager, 2012. Print.

And even makes an appearance in the Colbert Report:

“Sign Off – Goodnight With Krampus.” The Colbert Report. Comedy Central. Wednesday December 9, 2009. Television.