Saint Knut’s Day mask

A Saint Knut’s Day mask from Sipoo from the 19th century. According to tradition, the Christmas period started on 21 December on Saint Thomas’ Day and ended on 7 January on Saint Knut’s Day, the day after the Epiphany. On the days after Christmas, and especially on Saint Knut’s Day, it was customary to go on a group tour of the houses of one’s own and neighbouring villages. For the tour, children, young people and especially adult men wore old clothes, inside-out furs or worn out jackets. Men dressed as women and women as men, wore masks on their faces, sang songs of mockery and celebrated in general. An essential part of dressing was a mask and some kind of horns, so they were called Saint Knut’s Day goats.

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