Happy Christmas! And I've Discovered the Krampus!

Holy Crap! Thanks to a few pictures posted by some old school bloggers yesterday, like this one (don't remember where else I saw them)  I was inspired to do some research and found out about Krampus! How the hell did I miss that one?  Religion and mythology, especially the weirder aspects thereof, is my thing.  Huh.

It's kinda bizzare, thinking I knew what Santa was all about and suddenly, after all these years, there's this whole nother side to the story. One which would be pretty damned nifty, to steal for a D&D campaign.

Apparently, old Santa used to make his rounds with a demon sidekick. Sometimes, the two were merged into one, but the whole dual-aspect manifestation seems to have been the more popular, by far. While Santa gave presents to all the good little children, the Krampus would beat the hell out of the bad ones.

I knew about Santa's pagan connections (him and just about every other Saint) and amused myself on more than one occasion by thinking of all the parallels between Santa and Satan: the two names of course, both are referred to as Nick, both wear red, Satan lives where it's very hot, Santa where it's very Cold like the Norse Hel, Santa gives you something for nothing, which Satan often promises to do, Elves are sometimes associated with evil, Santa draws your attention away from Christ...

But the Krampus? Hah!

"He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!"

Far, freakin' out!

If anyone knows of a good source for further research, by someone without an agenda and who's not trying to save my soul, please do let me know.

Here's hoping everyone has a Merry Christmas! And that you've been very, very good...