Krampus, the Christmas horror story.

So many of the Christmas traditions that we have date from far earlier traditions. The most obvious ones come from Yule and the winter solstice, the birth of 'The Sun King'. From the longest night the Sun king is born who lengthens the days as we being to head towards summer. The Yule log was once a strong christmas tradition but has fallen out of favour as less houses now have large fireplaces , a large oak log that was lit at dusk and then was considered unlucky to have the fire go out before the log was consumned.

Mistletoe, that people kiss under is an ancient religous plant from both norse and celtic religions, Holy and Ivy, even christmas trees have their roots back well before their use at Christmas.

Yet it is another christmas tradition I'm posting about, one that has had a bit of a rivial over recent years and has come to the attention of many more people than those from the Alpine countries where it began. I'm talking of Krampus.

Now for anyone who hasn't heard of Krampus he is the opposit of St Nicholas, who gave out presents to good children. (Santa is his modern name.) Krampus is a winged half demon who punished naughty children. Krampus Night or Krampusnacht is held on the evening and night of December 5th. (Tomorrow night guys so keep an eye out for the rattle of chains.) So Krampus is the rod where St Nicholas was the carrot. He is usually discribed as hairy, has cloven hooves and the horns of a goat. His long, pointed tongue lolls out from between his fangs. He carries chains and either a whip or birtch branches that he hits children with. In other tales he has a bag or a basket that he carries away naughty childern in to eat later on.

Yep, a bit of a nightmare before christmas going on here.

So until a few years ago I'd never heard of Krampus but I was approached by a friend and asked if I could do some illustrations for a krampus poem he was writing. Now I'd not done anything like this before so I set about reading about Krampus and came up with a series of sketches that were given to him for his poem.

If anyone wanted to look for the E-book it is on Amazon.

So many people have wondered where Krampus came from, how the Alpine people came up with such a christmas monster. The chains he carries are believed to be a symbol of the devil chained. Now the devil is said to represent the underworld and hell and guess who was born on the winter solstice who was guardian of the underworld? None other than the Sun King, the Horned God of the Pagan religions. Just another link that paganism is a large part of Christmas folklore and traditions.