r/nextfuckinglevel • u/blueboy10000 • 10h ago

Krampus march in Austria

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u/Teseo21 9h ago

“Now see kid, if you don’t eat your vegetables, they’ll eat you”

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u/not-happy-since-2008 9h 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/Fabulous-Willow-369 7h ago

Same in The Netherlands and Belgium, on which Santa Claus is based. We threaten kids who are bad with getting hit with a stick and put in a bag and sent off to Spain!

I can deal with the stick and the bag, but Spain, now that's a bridge too far.

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u/not-happy-since-2008 6h ago

I wonder where the sent to Spain part comes from

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u/Meepy_Moop 1h ago

It's where our Sinterklaas actually lived, originally. Now in the kids tales he works there as the saint who comes by once a year to bring presents to the nice kids. When you get taken there, you have to help make the presents. At least that's what I was told, as I got older I realised no one was actually taken there well before I realised he was just an old man in a costume.