Christmas in August?
Well, yes, but it’s all because of a parade and a cookout.
Today, we are going to be talking about an ancient winter goddess that is normally associated with Christmastime because, on Wednesday night, I was invited to a cookout to celebrate the 60th wedding anniversary of two dear friends. During the evening, they talked about their visit to Switzerland and a parade they attended that mostly featured barn animals. However, at the end of the parade, almost like Santa Claus at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Frau Perchta greeted the onlookers with her wooden broom and her fearsome countenance.
Boroughsofthedead.com describes her this way, “She is often depicted with a beaked nose made of iron, dressed in rags, perhaps carrying a cane, and generally resembles a decrepit old crone. But this old crone packs a mighty wallop…. and carries a long knife hidden under her skirt.”
They asked me if I’d heard of her, and I hadn’t. I mentioned that she sounded like Krampus – and they hadn’t heard of him. So, after using our phones to look up both Frau Perchta and some pretty scary Krampus images, I knew I had to share her with you.
Actually, Frau Perchta (why do I want to hear horses whinny every time I type her name?*) started out being a beautiful and benevolent goddess. Atlas Obscura.com says this, “In fact, many scholars believe that Frau Perchta is the original great goddess of the Alpine region, “a powerful female divinity … worshiped among the Germanic nations of the Continent,” as Lotte Motz wrote in The Great Goddess of the North.
In 1835’s Deutsche Mythologie, Jacob Grimm (half of the famous brotherly duo) wrote that, as Frau Holda, she ‘appears as a superior being, who manifests a kind and helpful disposition towards men, and is never cross except when she notices disorder in household affairs.’”
Decades later, in most versions of Frau Perchta from the Christian era, she is certainly not the fairy godmother archetype that she used to be. Instead, Atlas Obscura tells us, “If your house isn’t scrubbed clean and you haven’t finished spinning all your flax by Twelfth Night (also known as Perchtentag), she may slit your belly open, rip out your innards, and stuff you with straw, rocks, and bits of glass. She also disembowels lazy children.”
Yeah, and we worry about Santa’s naughty or nice list.
Boroughs of the Dead adds to her demeanor, “Frankly, she’s pretty judge-y about the state of your home for a woman who dresses all in rags. Legend has it that you’d better get all your flax spun by Twelfth Night (January 6th), “for when the Christmas season was over, it would be time to set up the big upright loom, at which time you must have enough thread to warp it and start your weaving.” And what’s Frau Perchta’s punishment for those lazy ladies who haven’t finished all their weaving? “In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, there were numerous tales of Frau Perchta trampling and even settling fire to the half-spun fibers.” And if should you really irritate her? Like, say, not only is your flax not spun, but your house is a total mess (this domestic goddess/witch hates a messy house), and you’ve even failed to leave out a traditional bowl of porridge for her? Well, then, her rampaging will extend far beyond your slovenly spinning room. She’ll do nothing less than steal into your bedroom, disembowel you, and replace your guts with rocks and straw.”
But that’s not all.
Boroughs continues, “Other legends equate Frau Perchta with the legend of the Wild Hunt and say that she flies through the night sky attended by an army of lost souls, including the demonic-looking Perchten, her army of servants who are visually nearly indistinguishable from Krampus.”
So, how did a lovely Swiss goddess turn into a nasty disemboweler and head of the judgy cleanliness and spinning police?
A really good PR campaign.
According to Atlas Obscura, the Christian Church was having a tough time converting all those pagans to their new Christian beliefs.
“As patriarchal Christianity spread across Europe, it had to contend with pagan traditions that included goddess worship in many forms. The Church had an advantage over largely oral pre-Christian belief systems: an army of clergy, monks, and other scribes who could extensively document alleged bad behavior by these ancient deities and their followers. In fact, much of what we know of Frau Perchta in all her forms comes from ecclesiastical records.
Folklore preserves a few more details that may well have originated in the pre-Christian past: This goddess cared for the souls of those who died as children and taught mortals how to make linen from flax. The tradition of leaving food for Frau Perchta began not as a way to avoid violent punishment but rather to seek her blessing—and continued well into the Christian era, vexing the Church. In the 1200s, Rudolf, a Cistercian monk, wrote, “In the night of Christ’s Nativity they set the table for the Queen of Heaven, whom the people call Frau Holda, so that she might help them.”
The Church condemned this practice, and clergy waged an ugly propaganda war against the goddess for centuries. Motz noted that no less than Martin Luther attacked the goddess figure in more than a dozen sermons, including, “Here Fraw Hulde steps forward with her big snout, defies her god and calls Him a liar.”
Some parts of Austria and Bavaria even have processions during their Christmas celebrations featuring both the beautiful and the ugly Perchtas.
Who do you believe?
I really like the idea of the lovely Swiss goddess who blesses people and takes care of the souls of those who died as children.
But I’m going to make sure my house is tidy, and my spinning is done before Twelfth Night – you know, just in case.
Happy Friday!
* Silly reference to the movie “Young Frankenstein” and Frau Blucher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAYVIY1izho