Perchta

Perchta is a mythical character that comes from a place called the Alps, which is a big, big mountain range in the middle of Europe. She is often depicted as a woman who has two faces, one looks like a beautiful lady, while the other one looks scary with sharp teeth.

People in the Alps used to believe that Perchta would come to visit them during the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany. They thought that Perchta was in charge of making sure that everyone was behaving well during the winter, and that they were doing all their chores and being nice to each other.

If Perchta found out that someone was not following the rules, then she would use her big, sharp knife to cut open their stomach and replace their insides with whatever she found inside. For example, if she found leftovers, then she would fill the person's stomach with leftovers, and if she found spiders, she would fill the stomach with spiders.

As you can imagine, people were very scared to cross Perchta's path, so they started to make offerings to her. They would leave out milk and bread for her, and also clean their homes and be nice to their family and friends during the winter.

Nowadays, not many people believe in Perchta, but some still like to tell her story and keep the tradition of leaving out offerings during the winter.