The Dark Side Of Christmas - Frau Perchta

The Goddess of Christmas and a prominent figure in the lore of the Alpine regions of Austria and South Germany, Frau Perchta is a much feared witch-like lady that is not to be messed with.

Other aliases she has been knows by are "Spinning room lady" or just simply "Bertha". Her appearance is that of a shabby old lady with a beak for a nose as long as Pinocchio himself. She dressed in the cheapest clothes she could find, they were more rags than anything else. Along with this, she also walked with a crooked cane fashioned out of iron. 

Her frail appearance was often deceitful and taken for granted. Her pleasure came from spinning and she was a lover of domestic cleanliness, albeit ironic for one who dressed so vile. From December 25th to January the 6th, otherwise known to us as the twelve days of Christmas, she would do her inspections.

These so called inspections often ended in a gruesome fashion. She would fly over head going from house to house checking for two things; the first being that all your flax was spun, that the time for spinning was finished for now. The second was that your house was as clean as it could possibly be, Christmas was over and so the house should return to its normal state.

For those that didn't follow these rules or have failed the inspections, there are punishments. If you fail one of these then she would set fire to a section of the house and let it burn away before putting it out when valuables got destroyed, this was a warning for those to get their act together for the next inspection.

If a house failed both check-ups then she would pay them a very personal visit. During the visit she would disembowel the house owners and replace their guts with rocks and straw. The only way said to repel her inspections was to leave out a bowl of traditional porridge at 11 p.m on the night of the 6th of January. This act was seen as a sign of respect and an offering to her that was very much appreciated, as long as the porridge was up to her taste of course.

Frau Perchta powers don't stop there, she is said to be a leader in the legend of the Wild Hunt. She would fly through the skies accompanied by her army of lost souls of the damned and the souls of unbaptized children.

Legend claims that if you're in this Alpine region and hear the thunder and wind roaring and rumbling through the mountains, followed by thrashes of lightening, then you are hearing Frau Perchta leading her army in the Wild Hunt.