I love pre-Christian traditions of the winter time, and this is one the most consistently celebrated throughout northern Europe. It is mostly a Germanic thing in Scandinavia to view the goat and Saint Nick as a good combo, as in non-Indo European speaking Finland, the goat combo is viewed as sinister, which makes sense if you are not, basically, a Viking. This tradition most certainly dates back to the winter tradition of Thor and his carriage pulled by twin goats, that he sacrifices and feeds to the other Gods, only to bring the goats back to live through resurrection with a blow of his mighty hammer. There is an undeniable similarity between the look of the Norther European Santa and the Norse Gods Thor and Odin!
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| Modern Yule Goat started in the 1960's by a Swedish company. |
[This was a post set to publish last night at 11:30--apparently a glitch kept it from doing so.]
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