Holiday Greeting Card

Holiday Greeting card, set of 5 (of the same card). Enveloppes are included. The cards have no year on them, so that you can use them the next year as well.

Every year, cities and towns throughout Sweden build large statues of Yule goats (called Julbock in Swedish). The goat is built on the first day of Advent in late November or early December and intended to stand for the holiday season as a part of Yule celebrations. Yule is a celebration of the winter solstice and it takes place over ten days starting December 21^st or 22^nd.

The Yule goat’s origins date back to ancient Pagan festivals. A popular theory is that the goat is connected to worship of the Norse god Thor, who rode the sky in a chariot drawn by two goats, Tanngnjóstr, or “teeth grinder” in Old Norse; and “teeth bearer,” or Tanngrisnir. Another theory is that this practice is based in Indo-European harvest traditions, where the last sheaf of grain bundled during the harvest was thought to contain the spirit of the harvest and was saved for Yule celebrations – many early European customs included harvest gods that looked like goats – farmers often referred to their bundles as goats because of the resemblance. The role of the Yule goat has changed over time. In Scandinavia, young men in costumes would walk between houses singing songs and performing pranks. The group of Christmas characters would often include the Yule goat, a rowdy, sometimes scary, creature. The group would be rewarded with candy or seasonal treats, and in some traditions a member of each household visited would join the group. This practice, called Julebukking or Julebocken, is still practiced in some parts of Scandinavia today and is similar now to Halloween customs in the United States!In Sweden, people believed the Yule goat to be an invisible spirit that would appear before Christmas to make sure that the holiday preparations were done correctly. The goat eventually took on the role of a gift giver and is sometimes seen in place of or alongside Santa, who is called Jultomten. A popular Christmas prank was to make a Yule goat out of straw or wood and then place it in a neighbor’s house without them noticing; the family that was pranked then had to get rid of it in the same way. In modern Scandinavia, the Yule goat has become a popular Christmas ornament and decoration. These modern goats are usually made of straw and bound with red ribbon.

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