ADVENT CALENDAR – DAY 4

December 3. Have you started constructing your Yule Goat yet?

One of Northern Europe’s wackier Christmas traditions (no doubt with pagan roots), the Yule Goat may have derived from the worship of Thor. The God of Thunder’s chariot was drawn by two goats. The Christmas version is led about by Saint Nicholas, possibly as a symbol of the subjugation of evil.

Whatever the goat’s function, it goes way back. For hundreds of years, rowdy young men in costumes would go door to door enacting plays and demanding gifts. One of these, naturally, was the ornery Yule Goat. Scandinavians sometimes refer to the practice of wassailing as “going Yule Goat.”

In the 19th century, the Goat’s role was transformed into a giver of gifts. Though the Goat has since been replaced by a humanoid Father Christmas, in Finland he is still referred to by the name Joulupukki (you guessed it, Yule Goat).

Nowadays, the goat is mostly seen in its incarnation as a miniature tree ornament, made of straw and bound by red ribbon. A notable exception is the Gävle Goat, a 40-foot version of the traditional Swedish Yule Goat. The Gävle Goat is constructed over a period of two days in time for Advent.

Then begins an unsanctioned game of cat-and-mouse, with the authorities attempting to guard the Goat, while everyone else attempts to light it off. Yes, you read that correctly. If the Goat is burnt to the ground before December 13 (the feast day of St. Lucy), it is rebuilt.

For more information and a complete history of the Goat’s destruction, go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat

Excellent time-lapse burning of the Goat here:

Yule Got Your Goat

I can’t get enough of these Old World traditions. Keep looking, and you’re bound to find Christopher Lee locking someone inside a Wicker Man.

Here’s a Christmas song by Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén:

Coincidentally, Turner Classic Movies: TCM will be showing Igmar Bergman movies tonight, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.