Companions of Christmas 9: Perchta and Holda!
This pair of magical sisters have been in Germany since ancient days; Perchta (left, in both images) in the north, Holda (right in both), the south.
The first spinners, they taught people how to make thread and yarn, an art they still consider their purview. Every year on Christmas eve, they visit the homes of fellow spinners to bestow a blessing: wishing to reward industry and productivity, they will grant as many months of good luck as there are threads on the spindle. BUT they return twelve days later, on Epiphany, leading bands of wild Perchten, and will inspect those same spindles. Should a spinner have failed to be industrious, the sisters will, instead of a granting a blessing, lay down a curse: as many months of bad luck as there are unused threads remaining on the spindle.
Though as old as Christmas itself, the sisters have the ability to appear young (and beautiful), but never at the same time. Even though both yearn to take romantic partners, they can only do so on the three Thursdays preceding Christmas, and as neither is willing to let the other have a monopoly on youth for whole night, this virtually always leads to the prospective partner seeing their paramour’s true form before anything goes much farther than mistletoeing. So, if you’re in Germany during Advent and find yourself captivated by the attentions of a lovely young woman, be sure to check if her right foot is splayed like a swan’s from centuries of pedaling a spinning wheel (that’s Perchta!) or if she has an iron nose (that’s Holda!).
Contrary to common belief, the sickle that Holda carries isn’t a weapon to used against kids whose rooms have been left untidy. It is, instead, a symbol of the sisters’ dominion over the Perchten. The Perchten are a retinue of wild creatures, child ghosts, and those romantic conquests unlucky enough to have failed to recognize the sisters for who they really were, driven mad by their trysts and bound in their service.
The two sisters frequently run afoul of the Clauses. Whereas Santa reforms the shaggy wild beast-men that roam the Alpine region (like our friend the Krampus), the sisters subjugate them, and in her annual attempts to protect the more meek hidden creatures of the world from being the targets of the Wild Hunt, Mrs. Claus often finds herself up against the sisters, who are regular participants and sometimes leaders of the terrible fray, and all three bear the scars of these sometimes ferocious encounters.
cy-lindric
