This is Not Your Average Parade

If you’re from Canada or the United States, the only thing you had to worry about if you were on Santa’s Naughty List, is getting coal in your stocking. In Austria, you had a whole other thing coming for you: Krampus. This terrifying beast is the anti-Santa. He’ll come for you at night, put you in his sack and beat you with sticks. Not scared enough? In the alpine areas of Austria, you can go to a parade with over 500 of these Krampuses. This is called Krampuslauf or Perchtenlauf, and it is the only parade where you can expect to get beaten AND recieve candy. People (a lot of the time drunk people) dress up like the Krampus and run through the streets, growling at you, running at you and hitting you in the ankles with bundles of sticks. As you can see in the photos, I tried to make friends with one but I ended up getting smacked anyway! It was the most backwards version of a parade I’ve ever been to, but I really enjoyed it. Imagine how many better behaving children we’d have in Canada if we had a Krampuslauf?