12/05/2025
Another year of behaving badly. Will Krampus be visiting you?
Tomorrow night, December 5, is Krampusnacht, or "Krampus Night."
Krampus is a folklore character who comes primarily from German-speaking regions of Europe, especially Austria (Styria and Salzburg) and Germany (Bavaria). Krampus is also present in the folklore of Slavic, Hungarian, Italian, and Romanian speakers where those countries border on German speaking areas.
In his role as St. Nicholas’s companion, Krampus’s main duty is to punish or threaten naughty children while the saint rewards good ones. It’s not entirely clear where the name Krampus comes from, but the prevailing theories are that it’s either from the Old High German word Krampe, meaning a hook or claw, or the Bavarian dialect word Krampn, meaning dried out, shriveled, or dead. In either case, Krampus seems to be named for some aspect of his fearsome appearance!
You may be surprised to learn that American Krampus is entirely a 21st century phenomenon; as recently as 2000, the Library of Congress had not a single book about Krampus in English.
Find out more about the Krampus legend in Europe, and how he became more known in the United States, by reading our Folklife Today blog: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2025/12/krampus-origins-and-development-of-a-winter-devil/?loclr=fbloc
Image: Public domain image of vintage Krampus postcard. It features an illustration of the Krampus stuffing a crying child into a basket.
