Krampus vs. Dinosaur
I never thought of the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa holidays as being associated with what many would consider scary images, but this week’s walks around Alameda proved otherwise. The yard display titled “Merry Krampus,” with some devilish looking characters, caught my eye as I was walking on Sherman Street near Buena Vista Avenue. Krampus is a horned anthropomorphic figure who, in the Central and Eastern Alpine folkloric tradition, is said to accompany Saint Nicholas on visits to children during the night of December 5, known as Krampus Night. In a classic outdated carrot-and-stick technique of controlling childhood behavior, Saint Nicholas would reward well-behaved children with small gifts, while Krampus punished badly behaved ones with birch rods. Yikes!
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