Black Friday of 2013 has come and gone, and for the past decade it seems the spectacle has gotten uglier and uglier.

It has become a holiday event where stores slash prices, and the customers slash each other.

This year was no exception, and probably raised the bar even higher for next year’s weekend of holiday mayhem.

His name is Krampus. A hairy, ugly, beast-like creature with curling horns and cloven hooves, conjured out of the nightmarish pagan folklore of Europe’s pre-Christian past.

In some variations he wears rattling chains and bells, and carries a whip or a switch to swat impertinent children with. But in all versions his long, red, slimy tongue juts out of his laughing mouth, lolling about.

Traditionally, Krampus was the goatish and demonic companion of Saint Nicolas, whose role it was to punish unruly and naughty children.

If you were a bad boy or girl throughout the year, you didn’t just get crossed off Old Saint Nick’s gift list, the Yule holiday carried the added threat that the Devilish Krampus might chase you around and beat you senseless with his ruten (a bundle of birch sticks).

Not only that, Krampus might go so far as to abduct unrepentant and misbehaving children by stuffing them into his dirty sack to be hauled off to his lair where he might drown them in his washtub, cook and eat them, or carry them down to Hell itself.

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Krampus - Image credit: Krampus.com