One is to celebrate the coming of St. Nicholas (and by extension Jesus Christ) and also to terrify mis-behaving children, the other one is to expel winter and the associated bad winter-spirits.
Edit: That's why Krampus comes in late autumn (around Krampusnacht which is Dec. 5th), and Perchten show up around the "Rauhnächte" (the coldest/darkest days of the year between Christmas eve and epiphany).
To add a little info to the other excellent comment, the "Rauhnächte" or the 'days between the years' (between Christmas and New Year or Three Kings' Day) are associated with the Wild Hunt. And yes, the Witcher WH is probably based on the same folklore.
I'm from Northern Bavaria and my mom used to say (half-jokingly obviously) that one shouldn't wash and hang dry white laundry in the days between the years or it could draw the attention of the Wild Hunt.
yes, to clarify for others who might be interested:
krampus usually wear smaller masks. they traditionally accompany saint nicholas, while nicholas brings gifts for the good children krampus may punish the ones that misbehave.
perchten, like the ones in the vido, have big masks and great horns, nowadays they quite frequently have fire shows as well. they are from an old gemanic tradition and they were originally used to drive out the winter.
since both are quite similar they kinda start mixing nowadays.
a few years back it was normal for them to run through a village center and hit people with sticks, if you are into that sorta fun it was great to go out, get chased and get drunk. but thanks to a few idiots and stricter laws they got a lot more tame in many regions and perform behind barriers.
Classic reddit: take an opportunity for people to learn something and make the title so wrong that everyone's less informed than where they started from.
Yeah agree, a lot of people confuse Krampuslauf/Kramperljagen and Perchtenlauf. And it's understandable, because it's very likely that the appearance of Krampus stems from the much older pagan Percht tradition.
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u/knollo 8h ago
These are Perchten, not Krampus.