Somewhere in New Zealand, a seven-year-old boy had an idea to celebrate the spirit of the wolf. His mom shared it on Facebook. And over the course of just a few days, thousands of people, many desperate for something happy after a miserable week, joined the call to celebration.
This is Wolfenoot.
A holiday where we get presents and feast on roasted meat and cake for being kind to dogs?
YES, PLEASE.
I first heard of Woolfenoot when a friend shared author Jax Goss's Facebook post, and joined the enthusiastic chorus of people planning their Woolfenoot feasts. I reached out to Jax through Twitter to ask how her son created Wolfenoot.
There's not a huge amount of background really. I have a very imaginative child who is always coming up with stuff like this. I've been posting the crazy awesome and weird things he says for as long as he's been saying things. ;) This one just exploded.
I'm not sure where he got this from, to be honest. When I asked him, he said "from my brain". Hehe. Very helpful that. ;) But I am a writer, editor and publisher. I am also a folklore nerd, so he has grown up in a house with a lot of books and stories and fairytales. I have a masters in children's literature, so there are stacks of books in our house. He reads avidly - well above his age level. I think maybe just growing up among all that story has kinda seeped into his brain. ;)
Plus he is this sweet little empathetic kid who strongly objects to meanness and injustice and likes people around him to be happy, so that probably fed into it. I work at a zoo, so I am quite conservation minded, and we've had a lot of conversations about, you know, protecting animals and protecting wildlife so that maybe factored in. Mostly though, he just makes stuff up all the time, and this particular thing just... took off I guess. :)
I asked Jax if she told her son about the reaction to Wolfenhoot and if he knew how excited people were about celebrating.
I have yeah. I'm not sure he entirely grasps it to be honest. :) He's just like, "Cool, it'll be cool to see how different people celebrate it". I don't think he really gets the phenomenal effect he has had, you know?
It's that kid thing, where he's like, oh that's cool, now let me tell you about this other interesting thing. Haha.
It has been pretty overwhelming for me though, to be honest. Definitely mostly just excitement and love, but there's a part of me kinda bracing to have to get between my kid and the nasty side of the internet, you know? Hopefully it won't get to that though. Hopefully it'll just stay a wholesome joyous thing. :)
I've been sent HUNDREDS of pics of people's dogs, via twitter, fb, the even on fb. It's been amazing. :)
Wolfenoot is still a work-in-progress and there's an FAQ on the official Woolfenoot website. There isn't any official merchandise (soon!) yet, so don't fall for outrageously-priced imitations. In the meantime, you can follow Woolfenoot on Twitter and start planning your menu of roasted meats.
Top Photo: Shutterstock
