Today I would like to introduce you to a beautiful old post-Christmas custom from my homeland, which was handed down to me by my father, but one finds in almost no book. A not so well known legendary figure is Mrs Perchta. An old woman, with a crooked long nose, wanders over the meadows and woods in the pre-Christmas period. Her probably involuntary companions are the Zodawashal, unbaptized deceased children who had to follow her until they were redeemed.
If you saw Mrs. Perchta in other places in the deep Mostviertel, however, there are other versions of the apparently one and the same legend: the person on the spot to whom Mrs Perchta and her companions walked through the path would fall down dead.
Just as confused and unclear as Mrs Perchta herself is the history of her origins. Although they could be confused with the Perchten known in Austria and Switzerland, the two figures have little to do with each other. The stories and legends about Mrs Perchta are very different in the whole Mostviertel, there are many names and versions of apparently one and the same person. For example, it was also said that she took children who were naughty all year round. The maids in particular had to have woven the spider skirt cleanly and carried it under the roof, otherwise they had no luck spinning all year round.
An old oral tradition says that once a young boy had observed Mrs. Perchta and she immediately recognized him. Then she opened his head and put some hot coals in it. She told him to wait for her in exactly one year at the same place. Thereupon, for some inexplicable reasons, he had a headache for a whole year until Mrs Perchta removed the coals again after one year.
However, there will be a much more detailed german version about Frau Perchta and the customs and traditions assigned to it soon released on the 1st of january. I've found a very interesting video on YouTube about Frau Perchta too:
