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Joulupukki is the Finnish name for Santa Claus or Father Christmas. The name Joulupukki literally means Yule Goat or Christmas Goat. This name is likely to come from an old Finnish tradition, where people dressed in goat hides, the apparition being called a nuuttipukki, used to go around from house to house after Christmas eating leftover food. A typical depiction of Santa Claus. ...
Excerpt from Josiah Kings The Examination and Tryal of Father Christmas (1686), published shortly after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England Father Christmas is the name used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and several other Commonwealth countries, for the gift-bringing figure of Christmas...
A Yule Goat from Uppland, Sweden. ...
For other uses, see Christmas (disambiguation). ...
Today Joulupukki looks and behaves mostly like his American version, but there are differences. Joulupukki's workshop is situated in Korvatunturi, whereas the American counterpart resides in Greenland. Instead of sneaking in through the chimney during the night, he (traditionally played by a father, a grandfather or an uncle, today by a Rent-a-Santa) knocks on the front door during the Christmas eve celebration. When he comes in, his first words are traditionally "Onkos täällä kilttejä lapsia?" (Are there (any) nice children here?) Korvatunturi is a fell in Lapland, on the border of Finland (in the municipality of Savukoski) and Russia. ...
Look up Chimney in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
He usually wears warm red clothes, uses a walking stick, and travels in a sleigh driven by a number of reindeer. The popular song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in its Finnish translation, Petteri Punakuono, has led to Rudolph's general acceptance in the mythology as Joulupukki's lead reindeer. Joulupukki has a wife, Joulumuori ("Old Lady Christmas"), but tradition has not got much to say of her. For the cricket meaning, see Sledging (cricket) A sled, sledge or sleigh is a vehicle with runners for sliding instead of wheels for rolling. ...
Caribou redirects here. ...
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a popular Christmas story about Santa Claus ninth and lead reindeer who possesses an unusually red colored nose that gives off its own light that is powerful enough to illuminate the teams path through inclement weather. ...
Petteri Punakuono is the Finnish version of the English Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. ...
Trivia The location of Joulupukki's workshop comes from a children's radio show called Markus-sedän lastentunti ("Children's hour with Uncle Markus") hosted by Markus Rautio and broadcast by The Finland's National Broadcasting Corporation between years 1927-1956. Radio broadcasts have been a popular entertainment since the 1910s, though popularity has declined a little in some countries since television became widespread. ...
YLE (Yleisradio in Finnish, Rundradion in Swedish), Finlands National Broadcasting Company, was founded in 1926. ...
Finland's Joulupukki received over 700,000 letters from children all over the world in 2006, according to a news report by Finland's National Broadcasting Corporation, YLE.
The US-based Coca-Cola Santa Claus was designed by the son of Finnish emigrant, Haddon Sundblom. Haddon Hubert Sunny Sundblom (June 22, 1899 - 1976) was a United States artist who created the modern image of Santa Claus in 1931 while working for Coca Cola. ...
Sami traditions as origins of Joulupukki? One interesting theory about the origins of Joulupukki and his flying reindeer, comes from the aboriginal Sami people of Lapland. In the forests there is a common poisonous mushroom, Amanita muscaria that is red with white dots. The shamans of Sami used to feed this mushroom to the reindeer, whereby the intestinal tract of the reindeer would filter out the poison, but leave the intoxicating substances. The piss of the reindeer would then be collected, and used as a hallucinogenic by the shamans. The shamans would often have out-of-the-body experiences and fly in the sky, returning through the chimney hole of their tent or cottage to their bodies. This shamanistic tradition would nicely explaing the flying reindeer, the use of chimneys, and even the red-white colouring of Joulupukki. The Sami people (also Sámi, Saami, Lapps, sometimes also Laplanders) are the indigenous people of Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. ...
National anthem Sámi soga lávlla Languages Sami, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Russian Area ca. ...
Binomial name (L.:Fr. ...
Joulupukki's Pre-Christian origins? Pagan people used to have festivities to ward off evil spirits. In Finland these spirits of darkness wore goat skins and horns. In the beginning this creature didn't give presents but demanded them. The Christmas Goat was an ugly creature and frightened children.
It is unclear how this personality was transformed into the benevolent Father Christmas. Nowadays the only remaining feature is the name. The process was probably a continuous amalgamation of many old folk customs and beliefs from varied sources. One can speak of a Christmas pageant tradition consisting of many personages with roles partly Christian, partly pagan: A white-bearded saint, the Devil, demons, house gnomes. Nowadays the Joulupukki of Finland resembles the American Santa Claus.
Popular radio programs from the year 1927 onwards probably had great influence in reformatting the concept with the Santa-like costume, reindeer and Korvatunturi (Fell Ear, near Polar Circle) as its dwelling place. Because there really are reindeer in Finland, and Finns live up North, the popular American cult took root in Finland very fast. Maybe some caring soul decided that Joulupukki is just too scary for little kids.
Today, Finland is one of the few countries where kids actually see Father Christmas in the act of delivering the presents.
See also A Yule Goat from Uppland, Sweden. ...
Korvatunturi is a fell in Lapland, on the border of Finland (in the municipality of Savukoski) and Russia. ...
Christian Taiwanese aborigines celebrate Christmas with this hand-painted figure. ...
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