SUPER ULTRA EXTREME

He is your friend?

Julebukking in Galåsen, Norway, 1930

Julebukk; literally “Yule Goat”. To walk “Julebukk” or Julebukking means to dress up in costume and walk door to door in the neighbourhood begging for drinks and treats during the periode from Christmas to New Years. This is similar to trick or treating in the US and similar traditions exist in many European countries, especially in the Nordics, the Baltics, the Alpine region and the British Isles.

In Norway, specifics varied from village to village and between generations, some sing Christmas songs, other places it was usual that at least one person from the visited household join and continue with the Julebukks. Today it is mostly children who participate, but it used to be common among youth and adults who got alcohol, like a shot of aquavit, from their hosts. The Julebukks are dressed in masks and costumes and disguise their voices by talking julebukk laguage, ie with distorted voice, the point was to guess who the julebukk really was.

Julebukking got it’s name as it was usual that someone in the groupe would dress up as the Yule Goat with a buck- or horn mask and a shaggy sheep or goat skin. The Yule Goat is a very old Christmas symbol. It is possible that the goat is linked to the old Norse belief that Thor traveled in a wagon drawn by goats. He could eat the goats and they would wake up the next day alive. With lore surviving as oral stories and changing traditions, things get tangled and it’s difficult to know for sure why Julbukking is exactly the way it is.