Frau Perchta and the Straggeles

 


The straggeles are a group of Christmas demons from Switzerland, Austria and the alpine parts of Germany. They are the helpers of Frau Perchta, the crone of winter. She's a supernatural witch who's responsible for punishing the naughty during the holiday season. The straggeles are also known as the perchten, as they're Perchta's followers.

Perchta is seen as a complex character, having both good and bad aspects. She's the upholder of cultural rules, and there for while she casts curses on people and sends her straggele demons out to torment them she does it for a purpose, to punish those people who ignore cultural traditions.

Straggels look very similar to Krampus, the main difference being Krampus is an individual demon where as there are multiple straggeles. The exact number is never specified. Straggeles have a typically demonic face with a hooked nose, sharp chin, jagged teeth and glaring eyes. They have large goat horns on their heads, ranging in number from two to covering their entire head. The straggele's body is completely covered in thick fur. They have long clawed hands and hoofed feet.  

Perchta herself looks like a typical witch or hag. She looks like an old withered crone, with a hooked nose, pointed chin, stringy hair and wearing old tattered rages. Perchta has one odd foot, which is either too big, or shaped like a goose foot. It's a sign that she isn't really an old hag, but simply using that form to cover up her true appearance. There's a different version of Perchta as well, who is young and beautiful. She wears an all white gown and is said to shine like sun reflecting on ice and snow. This version of Perchta represents the bounty and generosity of the holiday season. Although beautiful Perchta is not associated with the straggeles.

Perchta and her straggeles punishes people for not having all their preparations done in time for Christmas, especially keeping your house tidy and any spinning or knitting projects they were supposed to finish. She also sends the Straggeles to punish naughty children. If children were good then Perchta would give them a silver coin in their shoe. If they had been bad the Straggeles would slit open their bellies and eat their organs. The children would then be filled with sticks and pebbles and sewn back up, which would somehow only give them a horrible stomach ache in the morning. To protect children from the hungry straggeles offerings of baked goods and porridge were put out to distract them.

While Perchta punished those who didn't make the proper arrangements for Christmas she and her straggeles also would scare away any bad spirits who were lurking about during the holidays. To these ends men would dress up as straggeles during the 12 days of Christmas and go house to house clearing out the the bad spirits. While this old tradition has been forgotten in modern times, Perchta and her straggele demons are still part of Christmas in the Alpine region, with performers dressing up as them during holiday festivals.  


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