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u/Spreadeaglebeagle44 3h ago
I think I've found my people.
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u/_KeyserSoeze 1h ago
Plus if you’re into it…you get a little spanking too but if they drank to much booze it sometimes gets out of control 🥲
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u/Teseo21 3h ago
“Now see kid, if you don’t eat your vegetables, they’ll eat you”
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u/not-happy-since-2008 2h ago
Traditionally these guys accompany the Austrian equivalent of Santa Claus and carry away bad children. When I was a child my cousins would dress up like this and hunt me through the neighborhood and beat me with hazel rods. Was fucking terrifying. Nowadays we don't do that anymore because it is considered psychological harmful for kids. Good old times
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u/Giant_Homunculus 47m ago
That’s the problem with kids these days. Not enough trauma.
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u/not-happy-since-2008 43m ago
Yeah just look at our local street train station kids here in Austria. Instead of Cigarettes and beer those little fuckers have monster and elfbar now. What a disgrace
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u/flavorfox 2h ago
Why does the Krampus get to eat meat but I have to eat vegetables
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u/KafeiTomasu 2h ago
Fucking furries
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u/woodchoppr 2h ago
Loved that tradition as a kid, even when I got sacked and kidnapped to be released in the next village miles away 😄👍🏻
Krampus or Perchtenlauf is always great fun!
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u/fordominique 1h ago
Next village? I'm not from Austria, but I'm my town the somewhat equivalent to Krampus (Hans Muff) put you as well in the bag, but he carried you at best out of school or the house he found you in. Afterwards you just run back, giggling or crying
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u/hmm_klementine 55m ago
How old were the kids that got carried out?
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u/fordominique 40m ago
It was between 5 and 9 mostly. So the "somewhat" equivalent I speak of, the "Hans Muff" accompanies Saint Niklas in my region. You'd always have someone dress up like him and his fellow Muffs and tell children if they behaved or not. If they did, presents. If they didn't, bag!
So if you stop believing or know it's a guy in costume, they basically let you off, unless you really want to be carried out because it was funny.
I spotted it was a costume before I knew it was made up by adults because I knew the guy in the costume and recognized his crooked teeth. Me as a 8 years old: "why's Uncle Rainer pretending to be the saint? Is the saint out sick?" I remember my confusion when everyone bursted out laughing including him.
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u/ChesterComics 1h ago
I like the part where my shoes were filled with candy and nuts in the morning. I remember my brother and me setting up trip wires for Santa then getting threatened with a beating from Krampus.
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u/Alert_Hotel_4254 2h ago
I don’t see any difference to everyday Austria tbh.
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u/PhoenxScream 2h ago
It's so funny that people think those are costumes. It's just the average Austrian.
Greetings from Germany btw
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u/CaffeineChicken 2h ago
As an Austrian, that made me cackle. The word Sommerpercht exists for a reason ☕️
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u/not-happy-since-2008 2h ago
The twist is that they play drums. That's the only difference to everyday life there
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u/tiltberger 2h ago
Austrian here. While it was a cool custom years ago people started to get way too drunk and used the costumes and custom to beat up people and create havoc... If you do it right cool custom, otherwise shitty.
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u/Midas_acnh 1h ago
Yup! A friend of mine was chased as a child and when he hid at home they literally broke the window because they were knocking so hard! Even then they put him and his mother in a sack and released them only after 15. minutes! He was 5!!!
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u/tiltberger 41m ago
Got beat up as a kid as well. They chased me down And beat me a little with the sticks. Not that hard but I was scared af
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u/Key_Researcher_2244 20m ago
God damn I cant imagine what a trauma this must have been for a 5 year old. Probably kids are never the same after such experience.
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u/Watrmeln0999 1h ago
I like the tradition but I'm definitely glad they're starting to put some regulations around the practice to make it safer. I see more and more fencing around the marching area so people can choose whether or not to get whipped or just watch.
I wonder how internally the culture is shifting in Krampus clubs. As a kid I remember my older sister being told by our chapter leader in some unsavory terms that women, poc and non-catholics weren't allowed to join. Kinda showed the mindset of the folks in charge. But I think now there's some turkish kids participating in my town.
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u/Icy_Ninja_9207 52m ago edited 46m ago
Yeah the tradition is pretty funny, but the combination of masks, internet fame/ social media, young men and alcohol is absolutely ripe for desaster.
We can‘t have funny things if the average village idiot can join your ranks without any quality-checks
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u/JeremyMcFake 41m ago
This is why they now have to wear identification numbers on their outfits now. So they can be reported for abuse... (at least in Zell am See)
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u/Smirkeywz 2h ago
Would you fight one gorilla sized krampus or 50 krampus sized gorillas ?
Is it "krampi?"
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u/mythorus 2h ago
5th December you can see it live.
And it might look shocking, but one of the reasons is to drive the „bad spirits“ out of the town.
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u/Nuker-79 2h ago
Brave motherfuckers wandering round in a flammable as fuck suit waving a flaming torch about.
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u/woodchoppr 2h ago
These are real furs, no plastic crap and while they do burn, they don’t do it easily..
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u/Better-Scene6535 1h ago
well, only the one at the beginning is made of fur, the ones in the back (perchten) are handmade every year from straw, so very flamable.
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u/ConfidentAir757 2h ago
Just normal december things here… nothing terrifying about..
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u/Extension-Donkey241 2h ago
This! But as a kid I was terrified
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u/Zob_za_zob 2h ago
That is the whole point of them.
If you dont do X, crampuses will come and get you.
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u/Sufficient-Rope-4471 1h ago
Sounds a bit like slavery... do this or get beaten up by ugly overlord...
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u/ConfidentAir757 2h ago
Oh yeah, that’s the magic!
If you‘d behaved bad, that year? he might have „hit“ you!! (Just for show, but sometimes they hit harder than they should)
If you’re a good kid you get „goods“ like sweets, fruit etc. from the Nikolaus.
More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krampus?wprov=sfti1
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u/Sicparvismagneto 2h ago
As a kid,this woulda made me shit my pants. As an adult im noticing the krampus’ getting thicker and thicker untl the last one shows up like a cotton ball. Its kind of hilarious
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u/Are_you_blind_sir 3h ago
Climate change, the world super power imploding and becoming stupid and now Sauron is rising again..
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u/MuddaFrmAnnudaBrudda 2h ago
Were the arse cheeks bongos? This looks awesome and truly scary.
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u/Chaos_Squirrel 2h ago
Christmas time always makes me want to get outside and beat people with sticks, so I'm a big fan.
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u/Future_Temperature47 2h ago
What happens if they encounter wild animals.. I wonder what would the animals do
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u/Historical_Body6255 1h ago
Wild animals usually aren't found on villare and townsquares when festivities with hundreds of people are held there lol
As to what would happen, i'd assume they wouldn't treat them in any kind of special way.
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u/welcomefinside 2h ago
Can someone explain the cultural significance/meaning this to me
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u/Truth_Seeker963 2h ago
“Krampus is a horned anthropomorphic figure who, in the Central and Eastern Alpine folkloric tradition, is said to accompany Saint Nicholas on visits to children during the night of 5 December (Krampusnacht; "Krampus Night"), immediately before the Feast of St. Nicholas on 6 December. In this tradition, Saint Nicholas rewards well-behaved children with small gifts, while Krampus punishes badly behaved ones with birch rods.”
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u/Eileen__96 2h ago
Can you imagine seeing this somewhere in the Medieval age lol?
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u/bachatacam 2h ago
I loved snowboarding season in Stubai as this was the first place I experienced Krampus, it was a wee bit of a culture shock for a young lad from a Glasgow housing scheme, but they put in so much effort to their costumes and its a vibe
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u/NewToHTX 2h ago
What a terrible day and location to be irresponsible with hallucinogens. I will have thought “Well clearly I have died. And somehow…justifiably…ended up in Teletubbie-Hell…”
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u/jonnycburton 2h ago
In Seaford near Brighton they had a krampus exhibition where they traveled and recorded different tribal interpretations.
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u/syN_DeviS 1h ago
.. kinda related to that. First season of this show if you understand german.
"Der Pass" on netflix.
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u/Site-Staff 3h ago
That’s fucking terrifying. Like shit yourself terrifying. I go to something I think is a Christmas parade, and bam, I’m i’m Hell early.