(Part of the information is collected from the Internet, the rest is your own interpretation, welcome to communicate)
In the fire on Christmas Eve, while everyone was busy putting out the fire, there was a man in fur and a mask. He did not participate in the fire fighting. The director gave him nearly a minute of singing in the fire. After I finished the movie, I guessed that this person might be a character from a local myth or religious story in Mexico, but he participated in the Christmas of the rich, which indicated his non-Mexican identity. Many Hispanic viewers on the extranet also expressed the same doubts about this character, saying that such an image does not exist in their religious myths.
The director said that this image comes from a folklore circulating in Central Europe. This person plays a monster called Krampus "Half Goat, Half Demon". Like Santa Claus (Santa Claus), Krampus is also a role that locals will play in Christmas and New Year, which is why he appears in white parties instead of local indigenous celebrations, because this is a custom handed down in Europe. . Santa Claus sends gifts to children who behave well on Christmas Eve as a reward, but Krampus is the opposite. His task is to punish children who behave poorly. This is why the person who plays as Krampus in the movie chases children in the room, which is a kind of "punishment".
The man who plays Krampus is called Mr. Ove Larsson. He originally came from Norway. Dressing up as a figure in European folklore also indicated his non-Mexican identity. In the Norwegian pagan tradition, people would pass torches in the four corners of the home, as a way of saying goodbye to the passing year. The fire in front of him reminded him of the customs of his hometown and aroused his homesickness. The song he sings is also related to his origin. The name of the song is Barndomsminne frå Nordland (childhood memories of the northern lands), and it was once regarded as the chant of northern Norway. The last sentence of the lyrics " Å eg minnest, eg minnest so vel dette land! ", which means "everything in the hometown is still vividly visible!", once again pointed out Mr. Ove Larsson's homesickness.
The next shot after the fire was the scene of everyone going out together. Cleo looked at the scenery in front of him and said that it reminded her of her hometown, although it was a little different. A female Mexican worker, a Scandinavian upper-class social figure, she missed her hometown when she was in a foreign land. Through this analogy, the director wants to express that this kind of loneliness in a foreign country and yearning for the homeland is experienced by all human beings, no matter where they are from or what class they were born in.
(English version)
The character in a furry outfit and a mask was dressing up as “Krampus” , a "half-goat, half-demon" figure that existed in Central European folklore. In contrast with Santa Claus, who rewards the well-behaved with gifts during the Christmas season, “Krampus” punishes children who have misbehaved. That is why we see the guy was chasing after kids on Christmas Eve.
The “Krampus”, with its European origin, indicated the identity of the character, Mr. Ove Larsson, as a N orwegian. While other guests and locals were busy with putting out the fire, Larsson was counting from 10 to 1 for new year and then took off his mask and began to sing.
The reason why Larsson had such as a wired attitude towards fire was that the scene reminded him of his homeland and his tradition. In the ancient Nordic pagan traditions, people pass a torch through the 4 cardinal points of the homes to start a new year.
The song Larsson sings is called Barndomsminne frå Nordland (childhood memories of the northern lands) It was used as an anthem of northern Norway . Larsson ended the song with the last line that says: " Å eg minnest, eg minnest so vel dette land! "I remember this country so well!" It showed his strong nostalgia for remembering his country.
In the next scene they went out for hiking and we heard Cleo say that those landscapes reminded her homeland even though they are different. This statement shows that both Cleo, the Mixtec-born domestic worker, and Larsson (the upper-class Scandinavian), despite their different origins, have something in common and that's the human experience of loneliness and nostalgia.
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