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| Julbock,
the Yule Goat Norse Mythology and the origins of the Yule Goat Before Christianity arrived in Scandinavia, the ancient Scandinavians used to celebrate the winter solstice around the same time that we celebrate Christmas today. The winter solstice is the longest night and shortest day of the year, and from here the days gradually increase in length and bring us spring and summer. For the ancient Scandinavians, the beginning of the end of winter was a very important reason for celebration. One of those traditional winter solstice celebrations was the Yule Goat. The Yule Goat was a person disguised as a goat who went from house to house entertaining families with songs and dances, and receiving drink and food in exchange for the entertainment. Why would a goat be going from house to house to entertain people? In Norse mythology, the good-natured, protective god Thor traveled around in a charriot that was drew by two magical goats. It is believed that the ancient tradition of the Yule Goat represented the magical goats who came with Thor as he visited the Scandinavian homes bringing happiness and protection at this very special time of the year. The Yule Goat, a typical Scandinavian Christmas symbol During the 19th century the tradition of the Yule Goat started to be displaced by our modern Santa Claus, who also visits every home and brings happiness to all the family. In Scandinavia the goat disguise was substituted by the jolly man in red, yet the Yule Goat was never forgotten. People started making goats with straw and used them to decorate the house during Christmas time, as a reminder of the old days when the Yule Goat visited their homes and brought entertainment and happiness. This tradition remains particularly strong in Sweden and Finland, where straw goats are used as a decorative item practically everywhere: Christmas trees, dinnertables, gardens... Gävlebocken, the biggest Yule Goat in the world In Sweden, the Yule Goat tradition is so strong that you may even find large-scale straw goats displayed in public squares. The most famous of all them is the world-famous Gävlebocken, a giant straw goat which is built annually in the town of Gävle, about 180 km north of Stockholm. The Gävlebocken was born in 1966 after a local citizen thought about displaying a giant-scale Yule Goat in the town centre. The town put hands to work and they succeeded a 13-metres-tall and 7-metres-long straw goat. Since then, the Gävlebocken has been built every year starting on the first day of Advent, which marks the beginning of the Christmas celebrations in Scandinavia. The Gävlebocken is today a world-famous typical Swedish icon. In 1994 the giant goat accompanied the Swedish National Hockey Team to the World Championships which were held in Italy, and in 1993 the Gävlebocken got into the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest straw goat ever build (14.9 metres-high).
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