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The original was posted on /r/ukraine by /u/duellingislands on 2023-12-24 06:15:08+00:00.
🇺🇦 SLAVA UKRAINI! 🇺🇦
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The Goats of Christmas Past, Present and Future!
Let’s not forget one of the most truly important holiday topics: Koza, the Christmas Goat. (Koza means ‘Goat’ in Ukrainian).
No, you will not find Koza on the dinner table next to Kutia. Instead, she will be singing, dancing and making all kinds of jokes. That’s because she has a huge presence during the New Year during the ritual event known as Malanka (we will write about the very colorful Malanka rituals, and Koza’s presence there, next week) - but also Christmas carolers often dress as this majestic and refined animal. What’s a goat doing caroling? Well, some believe it used to be kind of her own holiday…
Koza stealing the limelight yet again
Koza’s presence during Christmas is not related to the nativity scene in the stable. It has much deeper roots, or should we say longer horns. I read that only the dog predates the goat as a human companion, so perhaps unsurprisingly, the goat established a respected place in many traditions around the world, among them Greek and Scandinavian mythologies which are closely linked to Ukrainian traditions as well.
In Ukrainian tradition, the goat is a symbol of the abundance of nature. It was common tradition when caroling that a youth wearing a Koza costume would enter a house, bow to the head of the household, and perform a ritual dance to bring about an abundant harvest. There are several related songs and proverbs:
Where the Goat walks, there the rye grows,
Where the Goat’s tail, there the rye is thick as a bush,
Where the Goat’s horns, there are high stacks of rye.
and
Where the Goat goes, there wheat grows;
Where the Goat stamps its feet, there are seven sheaves of wheat.
The goat held a very special place in pre-Christian folklore when the mother of a new Sun transformed into a goat to conceal her true identity. As she was about to give birth to a young Sun during the longest nights on earth, the goddess of darkness and death, Mara, pursued her hoping to murder her and keep winter going forever. During her hot-blooded chase, Mara ignored the little gray inconspicuous goat that was calmly grazing some frosty blades of grass. Well, it was the mother of Sun! Thanks to her clever transformation, she survived and the next day a new sun arose; this started a cycle of the days becoming a little longer (we wrote a post about Mara’s behavior in this sunrise post), leading Earth to the springtime.
Not everyone remembers this old legend today, as a lot has happened since the dawn of time. :) But everyone knows, even if it’s only intuitively, that the goat’s presence among the carolers is super important. People spend a lot of time and creative energy to come up with the most cute, elaborate costumes. I have to be honest; I love to dress up as one as well.
(Left) High-effort modern rendition of a traditional Koza costume (Right) Koza stick from 1932
Nowadays some see the goat as a symbol of dark forces (what???). But this bad rep may just be because the goat was so revered and respected during a time when many Christian traditions rose to prominence. Perhaps the little inconspicuous Koza presented some serious competition to the new religion that old gods like Perun, Odin, or Zeus couldn’t! Well, they might have been onto something… at the end of the day, she is the one who saves us every year from a frozen, dark, lifeless eternity. And this year, she needs to help us even more.
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Zita and Mira vs. the russian army
Zita and Mira inspect their trophies, Kyiv.
Today we will leave you with this wonderful story:
Valerii Marchenko is a quite interesting fellow; he tends goats in the modern urban environment of Kyiv. Earlier this year he was interviewed, and this is his story of how he started keeping goats in the city:
For as long as I can remember, my mom kept goats, saying that their milk was healing and could stay fresh for several days. So, I keep goats as well. I come from the city of Barvinkove in the Kharkiv region. Seven years ago, I went there for Zita, who, by the way, goes by the name “Kvitka” in her official papers. She was two years old back then. I decided to bring her to Kyiv. Zita traveled in a sleeping car like royalty.
There were many people on the platform. The train conductor didn’t notice that a goat had entered the train car, and when she did, she wanted to kick us out. But I showed her the goat’s ID and explained that I had purchased the whole compartment in the sleeping car. She called her manager, but thankfully, he said everything was fine – people didn’t mind having a goat traveling with them on the carriage. And so, we made it to Kyiv.
Mira was born on March 26th, 2022, when russian troops were still near Kyiv. Valerii named her Mira (“peace”) because “we all want this terrible war to end.”
It was difficult for Valerii to feed the goats under the conditions in the city and during rocket attacks:
We had up and downs. Neighbors helped, bringing potatoes and red beet peels, and cabbage. Goats love that. They aren’t afraid of air raid sirens either – they’re used to them. They wait until the siren stops wailing, and then they’re ready to go for a walk.
Zita and Mira love to scamper around the burnt russian tanks displayed at St. Michael’s Square. They might even climb into the turret and nibble on something there.
I often tell passersby that these are our valiant Ukrainian goats, unafraid of tanks or russians.
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The 669th day of a nine-year invasion that has been going on for centuries.
One day closer to victory.