Thomas is a young men who has been dressing up as Krampus since 2010. He introduced us into this traditional event explaining his own experience.
The Krampusnacht festival is celebrated every year on the eve of St. Nicholas Day. It starts in one place and everyone is in a line, Krampus goes to people who are waiting and then hit them. That character looks very scary and if you are not a nice child, he will keep you in hell.
Even though for us, that is crazy and nothing to do with Christmas, Austrians are really proud of their old traditional festivity. They like to respect and preserve their traditions generation to generation.
In order to know more about that historical event, we met up with Thomas and interviewed him.
He explained us it is has particularities in every region of Austria but in a whole it’s alike. First of all they have to choose who will dress up and participate in the event. So they meet one day in November and headquarter decide if they are legible to become a player. Demographic questions or studies are important facts. The group consists of around fifty players, and there are both young and old people. Then a community of young members ask for charity and with that money they can design and make the costumes. They work in a stable where they shaping by cutting with knife their own masks.
When the day arrives, is usual to drink a lot during the event, people are enthusiastic and children love that Krampus Adventure. However it is a terrifying event that all incoming students in Urstein experiment this year, and we have an advice for future incomings: IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO WEAR TWO PAIRS OF PANTS!
