Krampus
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This Krampus trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the horned companion of Saint Nicholas from every angle: what he looks like and why he rattles chains, Krampusnacht and the Krampuslauf, the Perchten processions he grew out of, the Austrian ban of the 1930s and the 'Krampus Is an Evil Man' pamphlets, Krampuskarten, and his second life in American pop culture from Michael Dougherty's 2015 film to Red One. It then widens to his relatives across Europe: Knecht Ruprecht, Belsnickel, Père Fouettard, Schmutzli, Zwarte Piet and the belly-slitting Frau Perchta. The first questions suit anyone who has seen a Krampus meme; the last will test folklore nerds who know a Schiachpercht from a Schabmann. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
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Q 01Krampus is a horned figure from the folklore of which mountain region?
The Alps
The Alps. The Catholic Church tried to ban his masked revels, but they survived in remote mountain towns.
Q 02Krampus runs also fill the streets around Merano in South Tyrol, a German-speaking province of which country?
Italy
Italy. South Tyrol was Austrian until Italy took it after the First World War, and it kept the masked runs held around 5 December, the eve of St Nicholas's Day.
Q 03In the run-up to St Nicholas's Day, Dutch children leave out hay and a carrot for which companion of Sinterklaas?
His horse
His horse. Sinterklaas is said to ride it over the rooftops at night, and next morning the children find sweets or a small present left in return.
Q 04With what does Krampus traditionally punish naughty children?
Birch rods
Birch rods. The saint was no softer: children who had misbehaved were told he would leave them a rod in place of presents.
Q 05Krampus is usually depicted with which kind of foot?
Goat's hoof
Goat's hoof. The half-goat, half-demon look has made him a ready-made horror villain, in a 2015 Hollywood film and a string of low-budget Krampus movies besides.
Q 06Besides horns and dark fur, which feature do most descriptions of Krampus give him?
A long lolling tongue
A long lolling tongue. In a 1953 Time magazine account he also rattles a huge chain in menacing disbelief while children plead that they have been good.
Q 07What does Krampus carry on his back?
A sack or basket for children
A sack or basket for children. In the old tales he carried off the worst-behaved in it, to be drowned, eaten or delivered to Hell.
Q 08Popular accounts make Krampus the son of Hel, ruler of the underworld in which mythology?
Norse
Norse. The same tellings root him in pagan midwinter rites that were later folded into the Christian feast of St Nicholas.
Q 09What are the fearsome masks of Krampus runners traditionally made from?
Wood
Wood. The masked figures do more than parade: on the eve of St Nicholas's Day they go from house to house to frighten the children who answer the door.
Q 10Who traditionally put on the masks for a Krampuslauf, the Krampus run through the streets?
The town's young men
The town's young men. Drink is usually involved and onlookers can expect a swat, and the runs have boomed since a late-20th-century push to preserve local heritage.
Q 11In Austrian St Nicholas processions, the saint who walks beside Krampus is dressed as what?
A bishop
A bishop. The mitre and golden staff mark the office the real Nicholas held in the fourth century, long before America remade him as Santa Claus.
Q 12Which 20th-century government in Vienna banned the Krampus tradition?
The Austrofascist regime
The Austrofascist regime, the Catholic dictatorship of 1934 to 1938, forbade the custom, but the ban did not hold and he was back in Austrian homes within a generation.
Q 13A 1953 Vienna leaflet titled 'Krampus Is an Evil Man' warned parents that he could do what?
Scar children for life
Q 21In the 2015 film Krampus, what does young Max do that summons the demon?
Tears up his letter to Santa
Tears up his letter to Santa. It asked for nothing for himself, only wishes for his squabbling family, and he rips it up after his cousins read it out at dinner to mock him.
Q 22Which studio created the creature effects for the 2015 Krampus film?
Weta Workshop
Weta Workshop. Its creatures were mostly puppets and suits on set, which the director said forced a style of shooting that made the scenes more suspenseful.
Q 23What does the demon leave behind for families he has tormented in Krampus (2015)?
Scar children for life. The head of Vienna's kindergartens wrote it, but the tradition shrugged off the scolding and was booming again by the end of the century.
Q 14A 2004 book of vintage Krampus cards helped introduce the demon to which country, where he had been little known?
The United States
The United States. Few people there had ever seen the cards; since the book he has become an ironic seasonal icon, with Krampus parties, runs and a 2015 feature film.
Q 15Vintage Krampus cards often carry the line 'Gruß vom Krampus', which means what?
Greetings from Krampus
Greetings from Krampus. The cheery line usually sits above a picture of the demon thrashing or carrying off children, and some racier cards show him courting women.
Q 16What do Krampus runners strap to their belts to announce their approach?
Cowbells
Cowbells. The din is part of the point: the runs are billed as an old rite for scaring off the ghosts of winter.
Q 17In Slovenia, Krampus is known by what name?
Parkelj
Parkelj. Centuries under Austrian rule carried the custom into Slovenia, where he trails Miklavž, the local St Nicholas, rattling his chain.
Q 18Krampus also visits children in which country, where his name is spelled Krampusz?
Hungary
Hungary. The figure came over from Austria, name and all, and now walks beside Mikulás, the Hungarian St Nicholas.
Q 19Hans Trapp, a Christmas bogeyman said to be based on a real 15th-century knight, frightens children in which French region?
Alsace
Alsace. The knight, Hans von Trotha, feuded with the abbey at Wissembourg and was excommunicated; the story goes that he dammed the river above the town, then broke the dam to flood it.
Q 20Who directed the 2015 comedy-horror Krampus, having earlier made the Halloween anthology Trick 'r Treat?
Michael Dougherty
Michael Dougherty. A lifelong monster-movie fan, he had most of the film's creatures built as puppets and costumes rather than computer effects.
A bell-shaped bauble bearing his name
A bell-shaped bauble bearing his name. Max's grandmother was handed one as a girl, and when Max unwraps another on Christmas morning the family realises it was no dream.
Q 24In which Christmas action-comedy is Krampus the estranged adoptive brother of Santa Claus?
Red One
Red One. Game of Thrones actor Kristofer Hivju plays him as a grudge-bearing outcast who still turns up to help rescue Santa in the final battle.
Q 25Germany's best-known Nicholas companion, Knecht Ruprecht, has a name that translates as what?
Farmhand Rupert
Farmhand Rupert. Knecht is a cousin of the English word knight, which began just as humbly: in Old English a cniht was a boy or a servant.
Q 26By tradition, what does Knecht Ruprecht quiz children on before deciding to reward or beat them?
Their prayers
Their prayers. Those who can say them perfectly get apples and nuts; in some regions the rest were beaten with a bag of ashes.
Q 27How does Belsnickel, the fur-clad gift-bringer of the German Palatinate, differ from Krampus?
He visits alone, without the saint
He visits alone, without the saint, and does both jobs himself: cakes and nuts from his pockets for good children, and a switch for the rest.
Q 28Belsnickel survives in the folklore of German communities in which two places outside Germany?
Pennsylvania and Brazil
Pennsylvania and Brazil. Emigrants from the Palatinate carried him to the Pennsylvania Dutch country, and later German settlers took him to Santa Catarina in southern Brazil.
Q 29Père Fouettard, the Nicholas companion of eastern France and Belgium, has a name meaning what?
Father Whipper
Father Whipper. In the best-known legend he is the butcher, or in some tellings the innkeeper, who murdered three boys; the saint revived them, and the killer has followed him ever since as penance.
Q 30In a 2012 Christmas episode of The Office, which character dresses up as the fur-clad gift-bringer Belsnickel?
Dwight Schrute
Dwight Schrute. He hosts a party in the style of his German farming forebears, cooks their food and judges each colleague naughty or nice, switch in hand.