Talk:Yule goat

A mess
This article is a mess and totally unreliable. I suggest deleting it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.48.179.18 (talk) 20:57, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
 * It's a mess and unreliable, but the subject is real and noteworthy enough. I'll try to get my hands at the Ebbe Schön book of Christmas traditions to improve it when I have the time. Missing citations is only one of the current article's problems, though: It's a jumple of unsourced facts that make a rather bizzare whole. I'm adding a general cleanup tag. Amphis (talk) 19:57, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Yule Goats in film and dramatic fiction?
Are there any other countries that celebrate yule with effigies of goats?

And is there any possibility that the Swedish word for goat is sometimes used for reindeer? Dexter Nextnumber (talk) 02:50, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Erm, no. What would make you think that? Completely different words, completely separate animals. There is no tradition of Santa's sleigh being pulled by goats or anything like that. /Coffeeshivers (talk) 11:21, 26 December 2009 (UTC)


 * (A) Similar symbols are found in other countries, the most well-known ones are probably the Krampus and Kukeri figures, who are not really "a goat" in the strict sense of the word either:
 * (B) For Scandinavia, the term "goat" is wrong (see far below). The proper term is "buck". A buck may be a goat, it may be a deer, and it may be something else. It is simply a male, adult animal of certain species, neither restricted to currently non-extinct ones, nor to species from any particular geography.
 * (C) I don't understand the headline directly above, it seems unrelated to the question below it.
 * clsc (talk) 02:24, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

Comparison with Yule goat tradition in the Balkans
The ancient Yule goat tradition survives in southern Europe too, see the article on Kukeri. People still dress up and play the goat (and the stag, the wolf, the bear, also straw-bear and straw-goat costumes) in the Balkans. To quote the Kukeri article: The death and resurrection of the Capra (goat) reflects the death and rebirth of vegetation. Is this relevant enough for inclusion in the Yule goat article ? Gabrieli (talk) 08:20, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Which century is that, exactly?
From the "History" section:
 * A Swedish custom that has continued up to this century is the "Yule Sacrifice" (Juleoffer) involving a person dressed as a goat which, after undergoing a mock-sacrifice, is resurrected. Sir James George Frazer described its performance as follows...

Should that be "up to the twentieth century"? Even then, it'd have to be the earliest part thereof... I swear, no way is anybody doing that in this century! Furthermore, the quoted source (Frazer's Golden Bough), where I guess "this century" comes from, was published in 1994. -- CRConrad (talk) 19:51, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Deleting the Yule Sacrifice / Juleoffer part entirely - Skratch that, will edit it instead
Because as far as I can tell it is completely non-historical. I, being Swedish and interested in folklore, had never heard of this so-called Swedish custom. This article and some neo-pagan books in English are its only Google hits. It does not exist on the Scandinavian internet at all, and I have never seen it mentioned in any books collecting Christmas-related folklore. Amphis (talk) 20:28, 12 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Replying to myself: I did browse more and finally found an old game that must be the origin of this notion, actually! It is def. not, however, a tradition of 1940–1960, and I can't find anything naming it "Juleoffer". I think either the source is fuzzy, someone minsunderstood the source, or various editing has made it wrong... Will put it back with a checked source and a more accurate description. Amphis (talk) 13:13, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

General cleanup related to the Yule Goat's history (may need more cleanup)
Much of the history in the article was unsourced. The Norse pagan connection sounded far too definitive: While the connection to actual goats (and Thor) is a theory, it's a theory that lacks historic sources, so it shouldn't be presented as anything near a known a fact. I think it should be presented, though, since it's been common since at least the 19th century. The article mostly lacked anything about the Yule Goat as a character in the Scandinavian wassailing traditions. I've added info, sources and photos, and tried to restructure the article a bit. I suspect the languange might need more editing, mind, possibly from Swenglish... Amphis (talk) 22:19, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

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Goat? No; Buck!
FWIW, and FYI: The term "Goat" is incorrect, making the page headline, "Yule Goat", a misnomer. The proper translation of the pan-Scandinavian (presumably former Old Norse) term "Julebuk" (spelled in various closely related ways) would be "Jule Buck", not -goat. Term "goat" is spelled "ged/get", term "buck" is spelled "buk/bukk" (both have local variations in spelling). A Buck is an adult, male animal. The exact species of said animal is never disclosed: it could be goat, deer, capricorn, etc., or even a fictional/mythical/extinct species. Term 'Buck' also have several additional meanings (from "horny" ("horny male", that is. The adult sense, not the forehead protuberances), to "fold" (cf the object in question being made of folded straw), to "bow" (in the sense "greet"; not archery. cf Julebukking), to "Sawbuck" (a device for log shortening, cf Yule log), and probably more): additional meanings that "goat" does not have. clsc (talk) 00:48, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

Halmbock
Halmbock should redirect here (that's the term I searched for); e.g. see:. Thanks for your attention --107.15.157.44 (talk) 19:35, 19 September 2020 (UTC)