Who is Krampus and Frau Perchta?
You all know about Santa Claus but you have hardly heard the name of Krampus and Frau Perchta before. Just like Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) on Christmas gives good children their favorite gifts, on the contrary, some legendary monsters punish bad children. Although all these stories have been narrated and they are not much related to reality, but it will be very interesting to know about these monsters. So let's first talk about Krampus.
Krampus
Image Credit - Pixabay
In several regions including Bavaria, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, and, Northern Italy, Krampus is one of the companions of Saint Nicholas. St. Nicholas visits children to reward them on 6 December in parts of Europe and on the preceding evening of 5 December, Krampus Night is celebrated. In Alpine Austria and some parts of Germany, this day was known as Krampusnacht. On this night, adults visit children's homes to frighten and punish them by wearing Krampus costumes. In many parts of Croatia, when a child receives a gift from St. Nicholas, he is given a golden branch to represent his good acts throughout the year. However, if the child has misbehaved, Krampus would take the gift for himself and leave only a silver branch to represent the child's bad behavior. In more modern tradition, adults often run in the streets, including some drunken people dressed as devils by wearing Krampus costumes, and chasing and frightening children and others on the way. This event became so popular that people are following this culture in many countries. The costumes of Krampus are sold at a very high cost and normally share certain primary elements such as a fursuit, horns, demon mask, and hooves, as Krampus is half-goat and half-demon. But more often they are made of modern and low-cost materials. Krampus is the enemy of Santa Claus and many folklore also depict the fight of these two. If we talk about the origin of Krampus, he was also in the folklore before the establishment of the Christianity religion and was first practiced in the 11th century in Germany and also called Horned God. Krampus is also an expert in witchcraft in addition to demonic powers and many people believe that those who worship him are priests of Satan. Even today, if you go to European countries, then you will find many people who not only celebrate Krampus day but also worship him.
Frau Perchta
The story of Frau Perchta is quite prevalent in Germany and Austria and it is believed that she enters homes during the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany, especially Twelfth Night, January 6th. Frau Perchta is a witch who rewards or punishes people for their good or bad deeds. But she was once known as a goddess in Alpine paganism in the Upper German and Austrian regions of the Alps. It is believed that Frau Perchta is very ugly in appearance but she is good for good people and also brings gifts for them and her enmity is only with those who are either too lazy or too bad. She is a rewarder of the generous, and the punisher of the bad, particularly lying children. According to some traditional stories, she punishes children and young servants according to their deeds whether they have behaved well and worked hard all year. If they had, they might find a small silver coin the next day, in a shoe or somewhere else, but if they had not, she slits their bellies open, remove their stomach and guts and fill the hole with straw and pebbles. It is also said that if someone ate something other than the traditional meal of fish and gruel on the night of her feast day, then she slits people's bellies open and stuff them with straw. In recent times, Krampus and Perchten have been introduced increasingly in a single event, resulting in a loss of distinction between these two.