In Austria, the approach of the Christmas season is heralded each year by a pair of advance agents who make the rounds of hearths and homes on the eve of Dec. 6 to determine which children are deserving of presents. One of the pair is St. Nicholas, a white-bearded figure full of saintly good will. As portrayed by many a thinly disguised parent or kindly uncle, St. Nicholas is always ready to believe the best of any Austrian moppet who claims to have been good enough to rate a present.
Tagging along close to the saint, however, is another investigator named Krampus, a creature as cynical and evil as the saint is good. Adorned with horns, a lizard-like tail and a hideous black tongue, Krampus makes it his business to scare the living daylights out of children. As little Hans or Fritz, cowering behind his mother’s skirts, diffidently proclaims his virtue, Krampus rattles a huge chain or lashes the air with a switch in menacing disbelief. Sometimes he even comes equipped with a large basket in which to carry off young people whose stories clearly won’t wash. However virtuous Junior’s conduct during the preceding year may have been, a bout with Krampus usually leaves him shattered but determined to improve.
Last week, the head of Vienna’s kindergarten system warned parents that the effect of an interview with Krampus might well leave their children scarred for life. In a leaflet called Krampus Is an Evil Man, Dr. Ernst Kotbauer urged that his children be freed of the frightful cross-examiner. A Vienna daily rushed to Dr. Kotbauer’s support. “There is too much fear in the world already,” it said, “unemployment, high taxes, not to mention the atom bomb. Let’s begin by throwing out Krampus.”
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