"I am afraid it wasn't so much in honor of the Savior born to mankind," recalled Thomas Pederson, who was born there in 1862, "as it was the anticipation of a long holiday free from labor, full of gaiety, and with all they could eat and drink of the best that could be produced."

One of the customs they observed was called "going julebuk."

"This consisted in dressing up in the most grotesque and fantastic manner that we could invent, put a mask over our faces, and go around from house to house as long as anyone was up. It was always done evenings and nearly always by young people, the greater the number the better.

"We would sneak up to the house, rap at the door, and when it was opened burst in, often filling the room. We would then parade around the room a few minutes giving the inmates a chance to identify us if they could."

Pederson reconciled the pagan nature of the celebration this way: "They may have been sadly lacking in the true Christmas spirit as the incentive, but surely peace on earth, good will toward men' reigned supreme through those well earned holidays. Whenever Christmas draws near, a longing, a sort of homesickness, comes over me," he reflected long afterward. "There is something lacking, something lost, something that never will come back .There is so little left of peace on earth, good will toward men.'"

-- Wisconsin Historical Society
www.wisconsinhistory.org

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