The Gävle Goat
An unusual Swedish tradition
Gävle is a city in Sweden roughly 200 km north of Stockholm. It’s a small, uneventful town for the most part, where people go about their daily tasks, coping with long, dark winters. But there’s one thing the city became famous for in the last 50 years — the Gävle Goat.
Back in 1966 a guy came up with the brilliant idea of building a giant goat and placing it in the city square as advertising. The goal was to attract tourists to nearby shops and boost the city’s economy. The result is something he would’ve never anticipated.
The first Gävle Goat was build on December 1st. On New Year’s Eve, exactly at 12am, it was burned to the ground. Being made almost entirely out of straw, this wasn’t all that difficult. The arsonist was caught and convicted of vandalism.
Ironically, the Goat was erected by the Gävle fire department.
The Goat was constructed again next Christmas and managed to stay intact. The following year was also peaceful. Then in 1969 it was burned down again. And again. And again. For the next several years up to 1981 the goat was either burned down, smashed to pieces or hit by a customized Volvo.
Fire seemed to be the predominant method of choice. It survived again in 1982 and since then up until now it has mostly been burned down with only a few exceptions. In 1988 bookmakers started accepting bets on whether the Goat will survive this year. The odds were not in the Goat’s favor.
On several occasions, there were more than one Gävle Goats built at the same time, all of which were eventually set ablaze. Authorities didn’t take this lightly and most often the perpetrators were cought and brought to justice. Yet people continued to risk jail time all in the name of the jolly Christmas tradition. Even a major blizzard in 1998 didn’t stop enthusiast from setting the Goat on fire.
Swedish humor doesn’t stop there. In 2001, an American tourist was caught by police next to the Goat’s remains with a lighter in his hand and what I imagine would be an apish smile. He was promptly arrested. When brought in for questioning he said that his Swedish friends told him it was a perfectly accepted tradition to burn down the Goat. He spent 18 days in prison and probably still tells the story of his adventure every Christmas.
Another interesting attempt was in 2005, when a group of people dressed as Santa Claus and gingerbread men succeeded in burning down the Goat by shooting a flaming arrow at it. That’s right — a flaming arrow, shot from a bow.
The most recent peculiarity was in 2010, when two men made an attempt to bribe the Gävle Goat guard to look the other way so they can steal the Goat with a helicopter and fly it to Stockholm. You don’t make this stuff up.
What’s interesting about the whole story is how the most sluggish form of organisation by default — a city administration — managed to turn a random act of vandalism into a publicity stunt. They keep building the Goat every Christmas, because they know very well that thousands of people await eagerly to see how the giant straw figure will burn down this year.
The Gävle Goat has a twitter account with almost 12 000 followers. This year it burned down in just several hours after being placed in the town square.
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