Merrie Krampus

MERRIE KRAMPUS
At Yuletide each year in the region of the Black Forest in Bavaria, a sinister figure emerged to dispense its own cruel brand of justice. Called Krampus (Old Germanic for “Claw”), he punished children who had been naughty in the previous year. Bearing sharp talons and teeth, matted fur, horned like the Devil and dragging heavy, clanking chains, the nightmarish Krampus would break into homes and thrash the errant child savagely with a bundle of birch twigs. If a child had been especially bad, they were thrown into a wicker basket and carried off, never to be seen again..