Wisconsin Folklore

33 Julebukk

33 Julebukk On August 22, 1942, the linguist Einar Haugen posed an important question to a seventy-twoyear -old woman in the Wisconsin Norwegian stronghold of Coon Valley: "Julebukk?" Her answer was immediate: "Oh yes, they still do that in some places. It used to be great fun in the old days, for there were only the young people of the neighborhood ..." (translated from the Norwegian in Haugen, The Norwegian Language in America [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969], 511-12). Variously spelled and variously translated as "Christmas mummery," "Christmas fooling ," "Christmas ghosting," and "ragamuffining," Julebukk literally means "Christmas goot," in reference to bestial spirits said to room the wintry Norwegian night playing tricks on country folk. In former times, Norwegian youngsters, donning masks suggestive of mischievous animals, visited neighbors between December 26 and the Epiphany. Barging into homes to demand food and drink, they enjoyed their hosts' efforts to guess who they were (see Kathleen Stokker, "Julebukk: The Norwegian Art of Christmas Fooling," The Sons ofNorway Viking [December 1990]:10-13). The custom was practiced widely among Wisconsin's rural Norwegians through the 1950s, and longer in some areas. Writing in 1976, Trempealeau County farmer-author Dave Woods recalled: "Twenty years ago, everyone knew about Jule Bokking, or Christmas Fooling ... Grandma used to tell about Jule Bokking in a horsedrawn sleigh. Pa tells about doing the same in a Model "A" coupe, the rumble seat packed sardine-style with merrymakers. And of course everyone tells about getting to Tollefson's just in time to help with morning milking" (Dave Woods, Wisconsin Life Trip [Whitehall, Wise.: Dan Camp Press], 56). Inrst heard of julebukking in the late 1960s when sisters Esther and Ruth Frederickson, who worked for my dad in Rice lake, offered seasonal reminiscences with treats of fattigmann ("poor man's" cookies) and krumkake (thin waffles rolled into cones). A decade later, phil Martin encountered numerous julebukking stories from Norwegian nddlers in Stoughton and Blair (see Across the Fields: Traditional Norwegian-American Music from Wisconsin [Dodgeville, Wise.: Folklore Village Farm, 1982], 31). The tradition has also been reported from Waupaca County Norwegians and, as "Joulu-Pukki," from Finnish settlers in Clark County (see Alfred o. Erickson, "Scandinavia , Wisconsin," Norwegian-American Studies and Records 15 [1949]: 185-209; and Vieno Keskimaki, "How They Celebrated Christmas: The Finns," Wisconsin Tales and Trails 4:4 [1963]: 20-23). The proliferation of Julebukk observances in Wisconsin prompted historian Jane Marie Pederson to count it as one of those "aspects of the Old World culture [that] were sustained longer in the rural communities of the Midwest than in Norway itself, including the retention of particular regional language dialects, peasant crafts ... and festivities like the charivari and jule bokking ('Christmas fooling')" (Between Memory and Reality: Family and Community in Rural Wisconsin, 1870-1970 [Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992], 226). Despite its diffusion, the affectionate memories it commands, its status as a relic of Old World culture, and its signincance as a 346 SILVER, HALVORSON, & WECHTER: ]ulebukk feature of Norwegian American identity, julebukking in Wisconsin has not been studied fully. The trio of student essays offered here enlarges our understanding. All three essays are reprinted from student papers written for an anthropology course at the University of Wisconsin, January 1952; Badger Folklore Society Papers, box 2, in the Archives of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Christmas at Grandmother's Ken Silver When mother was a child, around the turn of the century, every Christmas was celebrated in the same fashion throughout the community. On Christmas Eve the tree had to be trimmed and all work completed before the evening meal could be eaten. It was a cheering thought to realize that every member of the community was eating the same food that was being eaten in the old country. It reminded the elderly people of their youth in Norway. Lutefisk, lefse, and spare ribs were always the main course, with breme, goat cheese, pickled herring, sour milk and flat bread, potata coka, romegrought, and tyte behr as trimmings. Grandmother would always have the work of preparations and Grandfather would direct the family party after dinner. Grandmother bought and prepared the food, bought gifts, knitted each child a warm pair of mittens, and helped the children decorate the tree. The smallest children always strung popcorn and bright buttons. The older children made tinsel angels and wrapped packages with bright colored paper and cloth. The top of the tree was always crowned not with a star, but...