() or in Eastern Austria, , , or in the Bavarian forest, is a witch in German folklore who gives gifts — particularly apples, nuts and dried plums — to children on Saint Lucy's Day (December 13), but also has a "dark Lucia" side ( in Bavaria, and among the German populace (as ) in outlying neighboring countries.: "Die dunkle Luzia in Ungarn, Böhmen und Mähren" This dark, or malevolent Lutzelfrau is reputed to may disembowel (or drown) naughty children and reward the well-behaved ones with rewards of fruit.
Nomenclature While Lutzefrau serves as one standardized generic name for the tradition in the Alpine areas of Austria and Bavaria, Germany, in parts of Austria, she is more simply called . Around Burgenland, she is known as , ,, map. or .
Etymology Lutzelfrau is of course associated with Sankt Lucia (Saint Lucy of Syracuse) and Lucia is a name signifying "luminous" ().
Local historian has ventured the guess that the name of the similar or companion being Pudelfrau (Pudlfrau) might be a corruption of Lutzelfrau. However, a more rational explanation is also offered, which is that the name alludes to the Pudelfrau's traditionally-told habit of rolling her gifts of nuts or apples through the crack in the doorway, and this act is called meaning "rolling in" or "tossing in".
Regional names In Czechia, she is known as or , etc. In Slovakia, she is called .
Lutzelfrau customs are also common in Slovenia and Croatia, where a "dark Luz" was contrasted to the Christian saint. In Slovene, she is called .
Appearance and costume
According to a mid-19th century source, the Lucia of Bohemia and Tyrol appeared as a goat, draped in a bedsheet with horns protruding out of the sheet. This is paralleled in Scandinavia. The Norwegian Lussia sketched by Leiv Mæle (b. 1890) shows a goat headed Lussia wearing a skirt, a costume used in Forsand, Rogaland; it suggests connection with the Yule goat (cf. linked external image right). There are accounts of from Västergötland and Värend (Island), Sweden, as well as the Swedish dressed in goat form.
Tradition
In Austria, Lucy's day for warding off the witch is celebrated mostly in the states of Burgenland and Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), or more precisely, "central eastern part of Styria, over central and southern Burgenland, and a small southeastern district of Lower Austria" describes the narrow band of area where the "Dark Lucia" folklore is carried.
In Burgenland, Lutzelfrau or Pudlfrau visits the children on St. Lucia's day and "tosses () sweets through the doorway.
However in Burgenland or Lower Austria (esp. Mank), the witch that appeared on Lucia's night was the object of terror. Certain items were deemed needed to ward off spells and curses of the witch on Lucy's day. One of these apotropaic items was the so-called "Jew's coal" (, charcoal remaining from the fire lit on Easter Sunday). This charcoal, combined with frankincense and wood from a blackthorn bush is then set in an iron censer and ignited. The household then recites the prescribed incantation:
The prayer is repeated once again before going to bed, but as an extra caution, one traces the sign of the cross with the left foot, to repel the witch from encroaching upon the bed.
On Lucia's feast night, between midnight and 1 o'clock, girls will visit a willow tree by a stream, and on the sunny side of the tree, pare the bark halfway upwards (i.e. without detaching), and with a (type of knife) carve a "Luzi[e]'s cross" or (X\X or XX\XX\XX, slanted diagonally downwards; or ) under the rind. This cross is moistened with the stream water, then the bark-flap is placed back (over the cross), and secured by binding it around. Then on New Year's day, when the mark is examined to divine the future.
Czech lore
In Czechia, there is the lore in the Budějovický kraj (now Jihočeský kraj, South Bohemian Region, mostly in Bohemia) about the (or or ) who comes around door to door in a hideous dress, asking the housekeeper if her maidservants have "woven their tow?" (while shaking a cone of tow as if she were spinning it into thread). If the housekeeper answered no, she would whip the indolent spinstresses with a whip.
Around Bergreichenstein (Kašperské Hory) the name Lutzl is prevalent for the masked man who goes around threatening to slit the bellies of women, on St. Lucy's day. This often ends in a scuffle where the perpetrator gets unmasked.
Another variation (unspecified locale in the Bohemian Forest area, southwestern Czechia) is a costumed man armed with a long knife who visits houses on St. Lucia's day, asking if they have eaten the knödel, threatening anyone who replies no, though hardly anyone comes to harm since knödel is the standard fare everyone consumes during this time.
In Moravia also, a woman impersonating Luca walks around in white dress on St. Lucy's Day, wearing a mask with beetroots () for teeth; she carries a ladle () and beats inept spinstresses on the finger, while praising the skilled spinners after inspecting the yarn.
In Hrozenkov, Moravia, a threesome of men in white clothes walk around on this day visiting homes: one with water and a bucket, the other with a broom, the third with a brush. One of them washes spoons and benches, another sweeps with a broom and third cleans the floor with his brush.
German enclaves in Slavic nations Among the German population in Weipert (Vejprty, Czechia), which is mining country located in the Ore Mountains, tradition called for "" figure carried a hedgehog skin, a needle, and a wooden spoon in the pre-Christmas season, together with the ("snapping donkey") enacted by men wearing donkey-heads with movable jaws.
In central Slovakia, a pair of figures went around homes, barging in on living rooms without knocking, according to the tradition the German populace were accustomed to in this region, particularly around Deutschproben (Nitrianske Pravno). One was clad in white, while the other had a blackened face and wore a Krampus-like costume. They carried goose feathers, doing some dusting or sweeping on the walls or corners, and perform a stomping dance, humming and grumbling, and leaving upon receiving a gift.
For the Germans living in the vicinity of Budweis (České Budějovice, South Bohemian Region), their Lucia worked in pairs with a Frau Holle and Perchta, and policed the spinning rooms (as Perchta was wont to do elsewhere), punishing spinstresses who worked on the St. Lucy's Day holiday.
In the Ascher Ländchen (, around Aš), the protestant consisted of a girl-boy pair. The girl in white dress and wreathed on her head holds a lit candle, distributing gifts. The boy with soot-blackened face also puts on a mask, wears a fur coat inside-out and straws around his shins, carrying a broom and sack as instruments for punishing disobedient children. In protestant Pressburg (Bratislava, Slovakia) the was portrayed by youths or girls dressed in white and wearing veils; they would do sweeping chores on furniture and walls with goose feathers (cf. goose feathers above) in order to "sweep out misfortune". They distributed gifts of sweets or fruits, and rarely resorted to the wooden spoon (cf. ladle above) as means of corporal punishment.
Scandinavia
The lore or observance of the wandering Lucia spirit on St. Lucie's Day is not limited to eastern Central Europe, but extends to the north, to Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, and among Swedish Americans in the United States. The custom was similarly practiced in Norway,, s.v. "Norway", p. 385 and from Sweden, also caught on in Denmark, s.v. "Denmark", p. 186 and Finland, s.v. "Finland", p. 213. Custom first introduced 1920s, but national observance of the day commenced 1950. around post-World War II.
Sweden
It is traditional for the designated Lucia (called , or ) to dress in white, wearing a crown on her head set with lit candles, and typically decorated with lingonberry leaves or other greenery, and a red sash around her waist (cf. photo right). The reason for the candles are obscure, though probably having to do with the association between her name Lucia and "light" (). She also traditionally carries a breakfast tray (explained further below).
The earliest recorded celebration of St. Lucia's Day in Sweden was in 1655. Under the old calendar, St. Lucia's Day coincided with winter solstice, but when Sweden's adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1753 shifted the solstice to around December 22, St. Lucia's Day was still held fixed to be held on the 13th. The oldest record of a Lucia enactment arguably dates to 1764, in Västergötland, where a man states he was awoken in bed by the girls in white dress" a singing of a girl holding candles and wearing angel's wings, followed by a companion who brought foodstuff and drink set on a small table.
The oldest picture of such Lucia, painted in 1848 by Fritz von Dardel, depicts the modern version with her wearing candles on her head and holding a breakfast tray (cf. image left). Rather than a full "breakfast in bed", it has been described as more of a "Lusse coffee" on a tray with candles,Carl Edor Andersson of Mjöbäck, Västergötland (testimony c. 1910s?). One of the informants of . Requoted in .Louise Wikström. Account of her father, Central Värmland, on the Lucia celebration of the 1840s. . Requoted in . perhaps with a special "Lusse bun" baked specially for the occasion, but the coffee-serving was also purposed for the Lucia maid to go around and awake everyone so they can gather for a grand breakfast feast at 3 or 4-o'-clock in the morning, featuring ham, brawn (head cheese), and black pudding, since by custom, the winter slaughter was to be completed for this day. Of course whatever was eaten for the depended on the affluence of the household, perhaps just bread, or even mere crumbs. The foregoing Lusse's buns are identified in later literature as (, cf. image lower right), and explained as saffroned buns. The Lucia girl would sing a particular song, the () to waken her charge.
The Lucia/Lusse roles were assigned to maidservants in families who could afford to hire them, but the practice at one time seems to have been going out of fashion, around the early 20th century or even earlier. The celebration of Lucia gained a new lease on life after a newspaper sponsored running a Miss Lucia contest for Stockholm starting 1927.
Other nationalities
Origin explanations One standard explanation is that Lutzel was the deliberate substitution of the pagan Perchta figure, orchestrated by the Church; or to put it another way, St. Lucia's Day was the Christianization of Perchta rituals in German-speaking areas.
A somewhat different explanation is given for protestant Lutheran Sweden. Since the protestant reformation frowned upon the veneration of Catholic saints, it became necessary to substitute the Christmas gift-bringer St. Nicholas with the , whose tradition as once celebrated more widely in Germany (and still preserved in Nuremberg), and closely parallels the Lucie/Lussi tradition of modern Sweden, It is thus conjectured that the latter developed from the transmission of the lore from northern Germany, initially to western Sweden.
See also Drude - a nightmare variant invoked in prayer described above; also compare "Drude's Cross" with Luzienkreuz
Perchta - Similar German, Bohemian, etc. tradition, during Twelve Days of Christmas. Ushi no toki mairi - late hour cursing involving the cursor wearing a crown (of inverted tripod) set with burning candles
Explanatory notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
(alt url)
(html frame markup, section "Na sv. Lucii")