Frau Perchta is a folkloric figure from the Alpine region, one that rewards the good and punishes the bad around Winter festival time. Like most folkloric figures, every locality has a slightly different version, variants that continue to evolve over time. While some folklorists, such as Jacob Grimm, believed Perchta was an old pagan goddess, other folklorists argue that she is a completely Christian figure due to her ties with the Twelve Days of Christmas and the Epiphany (the feast day on January 6th which commemorates the arrival of the Magi, known as the Theophany in Eastern Christian traditions). Both theories might be true, since it was not unusual for the Christian faith to recycle old traditions and supernatural figures and incorporate them into their own belief systems, a practice known as syncretism. Regardless of her origin, most accounts of Perchta concur on some major themes: that she was associated with spinning, that she traveled with a litany of others, and that she loved slitting open the bellies of naughty children and stuffing them with straw or garbage if they did not meet her behavioral expectations for the year.

The figure of Perchta never travels solo; she is often said to be roaming around the countryside in a carriage. She moves supernaturally through the land, harking back to the idea of the wild hunt, a folkloric motif of a phantasmic being traveling with a group of spirits. Perchta and her posse are active during the midwinter festivals, tasked with entering the homes of villagers to either bless or punish them. In some traditions she is said to be traveling with a group of small children:

“Perchta frequently is surrounded by a throng of infants – those, it is said, who had to die before they could be blessed with the baptismal water, the smallest lagging behind and burdened by a pitcher which is heavy with the tears of mothers” (Motz).

This idea cements this version of Perchta into the Christian framework, and strengthens her relationship with children. Other versions of Perchta have pluralized her dual nature into the Schönperchten (the Beautiful Perchten) and the Schiachperchten (the Ugly Perchten). While they travel in a group, they perform different functions- the beautiful ones dressed in shining white bestow blessings and wealth, while the Ugly Perchten with their horns, cloven feet, and grotesque faces (much like Krampus, but not to be confused with him) serve to chase out ghosts and bad spirits in the long midwinter nights (this kind of magic, used to dispel evil, is described as apotropaic, and often involves the use of grotesque images, for instance gargoyles).

Perchta has become associated with Christmas as it supplanted the pagan winter festivals, especially as she also possessed the ability to both bestow blessings and punish the wicked, but she was by no means a Santa Claus like figure. While there are many accounts of punishment for generic transgressions such as slovenly and lazy behavior throughout the year, many accounts of Perchta demonstrate how she is tied to honoring the winter festivals and taboos.

In his article “Perchta the Belly-Slitter and Her Kin: A View of Some Traditional Threatening Figures, Threats and Punishments” folklorist John Smith recounts stories that he believes demonstrate how the Perchta figures functioned is a form of social control, making sure that people followed celebratory customs, most importantly the twelfth night feast or Perchtentag:

“A further saying, or belief, was that on 6 January Perchta’s knife could be deflected by a well filled belly. If at that time she came across an insufficiently rounded belly, she would slit it and fill the aperture with rags” (Smith).

Smith also tells the tale of a regional variation, Quatemberca, who was planning to boil a villager alive for boiling spinning threads during Ember Friday (a day set aside for prayer and abstinence), until the woman was warned by a neighbor she was breaking a taboo. While the nuances of these tales have Christian overtones, it would make sense that a foreboding Pagan figure could be usurped to push these new social agendas.

Earlier versions of the Perchta myth tied her more closely to spinning; She was also often pictured with a staff, that led many, including Jacob Grimm, to believe that her association with children and spinning suggested that she was a much older goddess figure from Alpine myth. Earlier records also tie her to the completion of the spinning allotments given to young girls to complete before the midwinter festivities; Perchta would reward those who spun their quota of flax for the year, and punish those that did not make their share. It has been suggested that this is why one of the most common earlier punishments of Perchta was to slit open bellies of young children and stuff them full of straw. As the reliance on spinning as an industry waned, the punishment did not. Instead, Perchta moved onto new materials such as refuse, broken glass or rags as her stomach stuffers, signifying the remnants of the domestic chores that may have been neglected during the year.

Like all enduring Folklore figures, Perchta grew and changed as societies evolved, and will continue to do so. So, what is the take away here? For me it’s free license to stuff my face this holiday season, because the rounder the belly, the harder it is to slit.

Bon appetit mon cheri!

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While doing research, we came across the black-folk metal band Perchta, who definitely echo the ethos of their namesake. There’s a link to their bandcamp page here, and you can see them perform live on Youtube (song title: Hebamm).

References:

Motz, Lotte. “The Winter Goddess: Percht, Holda, and Related Figures.” Folklore, vol. 95, no. 2, 1984, pp. 151–66. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260199. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.

Smith, John B. “Perchta the Belly-Slitter and Her Kin: A View of Some Traditional Threatening Figures, Threats and Punishments.” Folklore, vol. 115, no. 2, 2004, pp. 167–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30035166. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.