Geisterwelt

They emerge from the mist...dark figures dressed in fur, with fearsome masks. On the move in the twelve Rauhnächte, rough nights, between Christmas and Epiphany.

It is the ZEIT ZWISCHEN DEN JAHREN...when it was believed doors to the Geisterwelt, spirit world, were open so demons and evil spirits roamed the earth. Causing chaos and fear during the Rauhnächte from Weihnachten until Dreikönigstag. Twelfth Night.

A custom followed since the 14th century in the Bavarian-Austrian Alpine region. 

And closets had better be filled with clean clothes, as washing should not be done during these twelve days. 

While it is hanging outside to dry wilden Geister, rampaging through the area, might get tangled up in the clotheslines...in revenge bringing bad luck to those homes for the following year.

Or so it is said. 

And even in these days of energy hungry tumble dryers and not so much of clotheslines, stockpiling the laundry is a Brauchtum, custom, still followed in some German speaking Alpine regions during the twelve days of Christmas.