The Yule Goat: Photographs of Finland’s Nuuttipukki (1928)

“Good Thomas brought Christmas and bad Nuutti took it away”

– Finnish saying

 

 

On January 13, it’s Saint Knut’s day in Finland, which usually marks the end of the Christmas season. And the Nuuttipukki is at your door. The strange, goat-like creature is a thirsty man dressed in animal skins, wearing a leather mask and carrying a tail of twigs and sticks. He’s often accompanied by an entourage of masked men. Let him in or else it will be all the worse for you. He’s come to eat what’s left of your Christmas dinner and drink the dregs of your Christmas booze. This mischievous creature uses the twigs to sweep Christmas from your home.

Unless the Nuuttipukki receives a treat from the host, he will commit evil deeds. A dialectical proverb from Noormarkku goes: Hyvä Tuomas joulun tua, paha Knuuti poijes viä  (‘Good [St.] Thomas brings Christmas, evil Knut takes [it] away’).

The other reason people are willing to let the Nuuttipukki in that he’s supposed to scare off ghosts before they became evil. It was once believed that Christmas lured the spirits of dead relatives back to the human world. The masks disguises the Nuuttipukki’s true identity so that the dead cannot seek revenge.

 

 

I fed the Nuutti, I gave the Nuutti drink
I put the Nuutti in the corner to sleep.
The Nuutti slept in its filth, sinking into its rags.
That over there . . .
if something is lying over there
then I am probably naughty,
if I come round to yours.
Special thanks to Emma Vehviläinen.

 

 

The Yule Goat has long history in Northern European culture.

Nowadays in Finland, you’re more likely to encounter a Joulupukki, the Yule goat, than the Nuuttipukki. Joulupukki represents a man that turned into a goat on Christmas Eve. Along with a chaperone, the goat goes from door to door looking for well-behaved children to give presents to.

“Onko täällä kilttejä lapsia?” he asks (“Are there any well-behaved children here?”).