My Little Pukki

« Meet the pre-1900s model of the Nuuttipukki. The post-1900s model is not nearly as entertaining or colourful. »

For as long as I've been in Finland, I've been confused by the different 'pukkis' around the Christmas holidays. I think I'm pretty set on the whole idea of the Joulupukki, a.k.a. St. Nick, being associated with the guy in the red suit who lives in Rovaniemi. There are two others, olkipukki and nuuttipukki, that have been quite confusing since most Finns I've asked about them seem to know little about these traditions that have more or less faded from Helsinki, if not much of Finland. I find this a bit odd since most Finns I know seems to have more knowledge about American pop culture than I do yet when I bring up their own traditions in a country the size of New Mexico with a population about the same size as the Boston metropolitan area, they draw a blank. Of course, this could be a sign of how a lot of the old traditions are disappearing as the younger people don't learn about them or practise them anymore.

The olkipukki is a goat which used to be a pagan symbol of fertility which was, predictably, co-opted by the Christians in Medieval times and made into a devil who accompanied St. Nick at Christmas time. Later the goat would be softened into the gift bearing Christmas goat. Much, much later, Coca-cola would replace the stinky, fertile goat with a jolly red fat guy accompanied by a sleigh and 8 reindeer. Personally, I think I like the idea of the fertility goat better since there is now no mascot for the traditional Christmas shag and the children born 9 months later. You can make your own olkipukki in preparation for next year but mind that it mentions that cats seem rather fond of biting the finished product.

The nuuttipukki is even more obscure than the olkipukki as tomorrow is Nuutin päivä, but it's likely few people under 30 would remember it. :) Who couldn't love a day where you can dress up like an evil furry beast and trick-or-treat for booze and leftover ham?! I could really get into that sort of thing but it turned into a lame holiday that lost the spirit of the original and thus has faded from the holiday calendar. It's a pity, really. Perhaps it could be reincarnated as a pub night where you go demand beer from your local bartender in exchange for a few euros.

Nuutin Päivä

The following explanation of Nuutin päivä was summarized by Jarkko from Arno Forsius' page Nuutin päivä.

The "nuutti" comes from two Danish beautified kings named "Knut" (you would know one of them as the Canute with the poor command of the sea), both Nordic catholic saints. (Yes, even though the Catholic church was thrown out, the holy days survived, witness "juhannus" for St. John's day.)

The date was originally 7.1, being the day after Epiphany, seen as the end of the Yule carnival. One of the Knuts was killed on that date. Later in early 1700s the date was moved to the 13.1 because of some holy day shuffling. Which date was used depended on the region; some people kept using the "vanha nuutti", while some people started using the "uusi nuutti". In some places the festivities took two consecutive evenings: 7/8th or the 13/14th.

What happened on that day was that young men (mostly, sometimes also young women) dressed up as "nuuttipukkis" by wearing their fur coat inside out, old clothes, maybe wearing a mask or scarf of some sort or blackened face, often wearing straw sheafs or horns.

The groups of people went from house to house and loudly demanded the remainders of the Christmastime food and drink (especially the latter, beer and ale were popular draughts). If the people of the house did not cooperate, they were mocked with song and off-color jokes.

Sometimes the loot was consumed right there, sometimes collected to some large communal house (many villages had such a house for weddings and other large parties), and then consumed there.

In Finland the tradition survived the longest in the west and the south. In the beginning of 1900s the tradition became solely practiced by children instead of the teens or young adults, and instead of demanding beer they asked for candy and other treats, quite possibly affected by the Eastertime tradition of "little witches" that arrived from Karelia and eastern Finland.