Swedish Christmas Straw Goats

now THAT sounds like the goat to have hangin around the barn at Christmas
parties! Or any party night!!!

-- kellie
bergerk at sbcglobal dot net
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ber....net/my_photos


"Roberta Zollner" wrote in message
...
Not devilish really -that was just missionary propaganda. And there's also
the nanny goat Heidrun who lives on the thatched roof of Valhalla, and who
produces mead instead of milk. Very convenient for holidays!
Roberta in D

Another bit of missionary propaganda, beating the barrel with the black cat
inside. Pagans celebrated a spring fertility festival associated with Freya
around that time, so the church needed to "drive out" Freya's poor little
black kitties. For those with no Danish experience, the barrel nowadays is
filled with goodies, no more torturing small animals. Small children dress
up in costumes on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) and take turns whacking the
barrel with a stick until it breaks.
Roberta in D

"Hanne Gottliebsen" wrote in message
...
about black cats
sounds more like Halloween than Christmas activity!
We never did Halloween, but used black cats for decorations (no, not the
actual cats! Pictures) for "fastelavn" which is a celebration before the
fast leading up to Easter. I think this was originally associated with
whitches, which is probably also why they are used at Halloween?


So why would ppl want all these devilish goats as Christmas ornaments
then?
They are cute, but....!

I didn't even know about this connection, until I looked it up this
morning. For me, they were always just one of those Swedish country
Christmas things we had around at home (in Denmark) :-)

Hanne in London

W,
You wait for Santa around the mistletoe, eh?

PAT, chuckling in VA/USA

frood wrote:
I, for one, always enjoy a nice Christmas goose.

Let's just say my kids know all the words to I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa
Claus.

--
Wendy
http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
de-fang email address to reply




"Pat in Virginia" wrote in message
news:%Immd.41$zA.40@lakeread05...
W,
You wait for Santa around the mistletoe, eh?

PAT, chuckling in VA/USA

frood wrote:
I, for one, always enjoy a nice Christmas goose.

Roberta Zollner wrote:
Another bit of missionary propaganda, beating the barrel with the black cat
inside. Pagans celebrated a spring fertility festival associated with Freya
around that time, so the church needed to "drive out" Freya's poor little
black kitties. For those with no Danish experience, the barrel nowadays is
filled with goodies, no more torturing small animals. Small children dress
up in costumes on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) and take turns whacking the
barrel with a stick until it breaks.
Roberta in D



Except, in my experience, it has been changed to fit nicely with the
"Sunday is the day off", so usually this takes place on the Sunday
before Shrove Tuesdays (except in school where if at all, it might be on
the day).

Like Roberta said many emails ago, Denmark was first "made Christian" by
Royal decree (there is a good story to go with that - includes a
miracle), and I guess there was no real hurry to rid ourselves of all
the old ways :-)

Hanne in London

we do a modified version of: I saw Daddy kissing santa claus
unerneath the chrismas tree last night...and this morning :PP
then it switches to Mummy...

Krysia

Let's just say my kids know all the words to I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa
Claus.

K.T. - starannie opakowana