This village, at the foot of the Eagle's Nest, was about as secure from modern influence as one can find in modern Germany (oh yeah, in order to go here, we had to cross into Germany, though we went back to Salzburg shortly after). It was certainly cute and quaint- that is until night. Apparently we showed up on the day before St. Nicholas' Day. This day belongs to his friend Krampus, who is a devil that beats bad children (sort of like threatening them Santa will give them coal). In some of these towns, including the one we visited, young men dress up as devils (picture the monsters in "Where the Wild Things Are" replete with cowbells embedded into their backs to make noise), take 3 foot long bound reeds, and beat kids in the crowd. Mariah and I got stuck in a crowd that was coralled into a circle by these guys. They walked around the circle, staring at people in a menacing fashion, then would force people out at random and swat their legs with these sticks. It was unreal! These guys were really intimidating. They got me once and accidentally hit Mariah (she had a welt on her knee that night). It was such a strange experience how we could be purchasing hand-made wooden ornaments in this little town, and then night falls and the town becomes twisted into this strange fear. I couldn't find very good articles on it, and the guys in this one don't look like the ones we saw, but you get the idea.
Here it is on youtube; our experience was at night and it was much more intimidating, btu you can kind of get the point. They are also not beating people with as hard of switches.
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