During the twelve nights of Christmas, Perchta – the Luminous One, Maiden of the Wagon and Plow, Snow Queen, Iron-Nosed, Guardian of the Beasts and Mother of Spirits, She Who Spins – leads her host of spirits, pixies, ghostly children, beasts, and fiends through the nighttime streets of Alpine villages. With her entourage of schiachperchten and schönperchten, she chastises the shiftless and grants boons to the hardworking.