SALZBURG, Austria — As you approach Salzburg's Max Aicher Stadium on the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas, you'd be forgiven if you thought that, from a distance, there appeared to be a Chewbacca convention underway. As you got closer, though, you'd realize the few hundred mostly men dressed in furry brown costumes were not from a galaxy, far, far away, but had instead assembled for a far more traditional, Earth-bound reason: to play, en masse , the alpine character of Krampus, the monstrous horned devilish figure who, according to custom in this part of Europe, accompanies St. Nicholas as he visits children and assesses their behavior from the past year. While St. Nick rewards the good boys and girls, his hairy, demonic sidekick punishes the bad children.

"It's basically a good cop, ba

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