Holiday Traditions: the Gävle Goat

The Swedish town of Gävle has not one, but two delightful Christmas traditions involving a giant straw goat.

First, setting up the goat in the center of town, in time for Advent.

Second, the destruction of the goat by vandalism.

The first giant Yule goat, brainchild of Gävle resident Stig Gavlén, was set up in 1966. It lasted until New Year's Eve, when it was torched. According to a mad straw goat statistician at wikipedia, only 45% of the goats since then have survived until New Year's Day. A few excerpts from the mad straw goat statistician's very detailed record:

• 1968 The goat survived. A fence was built around the goat. Previously it was popular for children to play hide-and-seek inside and around the goat. There was also a rmor that one night a couple had sex inside the goat. In subsequent years the inside of the goat was protected by a chicken-wire net.
• 1969 The goat was burnt down on New Year's Eve.
• 1970 The goat was burnt down only six hours after it was assembled. Two very drunk teenagers were connected with the crime. With help from several financial contributors the goat was reassembled out of lake reed.
• 1979 The goat was burnt even before it was erected. A new one was built and fireproofed. It was destroyed and broken into pieces.
• 1980 Burnt down on Christmas Eve.
• 1982 Burnt down on Lucia (13 December).
• 1985 The 12.5 metre (41 ft) tall goat of the Natural Science Club was featured in the Guinness Book of Records for the first time. Even though the goat was enclosed by a 2 metres (6.6 ft) high metal fence, guarded by Securitas and even soldiers from the Gävle I 14 Infantry Regiment, it was burnt down in January.
• 1987 A heavily fireproofed goat was built. It got burnt down a week before Christmas.
• 1988 Nothing happened to the goat, but gamblers were for the first time able to gamble on the fate of the goat with English bookmakers.
• 1994 Nothing happened. The goat followed the Swedish national hockey team to Italy for the World Championship in hockey.
• 1998 Burnt down on 11 December, even though there was a major blizzard. Was rebuilt.
• 1999 Burnt down only a couple of hours after it was erected. Rebuilt again before Lucia.
• 2001 Goat set on fire on 23 December by Lawrence Jones, a 51-year-old visitor from Cleveland, Ohio, who spent 18 days in jail and was subsequently convicted and ordered to pay 100,000 Swedish kronor in damages. The court confiscated Jones's cigarette lighter with the argument that he clearly was not able to handle it. Jones stated in court that he was no "goat burner", and believed that he was taking part in a completely legal goat-burning tradition. After Jones was released from jail he went straight back to the US without paying his fine. As of 2006 it was still unpaid. The Natural Science Club's goat was also burnt down.
• 2002 A 22 year old from Stockholm tried to set the Southern Merchants' goat on fire, but failed, the goat receiving only minor damage. On Lucia the goat was guarded by Swedish radio and TV personality Gert Fylking.
• 2005 Burnt by unknown vandals reportedly dressed as Santa and the gingerbread man, by shooting a flaming arrow at the goat at 21:00 on 3 December. Reconstructed on 5 December. The hunt for the arsonist responsible for the goat-burning in 2005 was featured on the weekly Swedish live broadcast TV3's "Most Wanted" ("Efterlyst") on 8 December.
• 2008 10,000 people turned out for the inauguration of one of the goats. No back-up goat was built to replace the main goat should the worst happen, nor was the goat treated with flame repellent (Anna Östman, spokesperson of the Goat-committee said the repellent made it look ugly in the previous years, like a brown terrier). On 16 December the Natural Science Club's Goat was vandalised and later removed. On 26 December there was an attempt to burn down the Southern Merchants' Goat but patriotic passers-by managed to extinguish the fire. The following day the goat finally succumbed to the flames ignited by an unknown assailant at 03:50 CET.
• 2010 On the night of 2 December, arsonists made an unsuccessful attempt to burn the Natural Science Club's goat. On 17 December, a Swedish news site reported that one of the guards tasked with protecting the Southern Merchants' goat had been offered payment to leave his post so that the goat could be stolen via helicopter and transported to Stockholm. Both goats survived and were dismantled and returned to storage in early January 2011.
• 2012 The inauguration of the goat took place on 2 December. It was burnt just ten days later in the hours before midnight of 12 December, one day before Lucia.

I feel like I should add some coda, but what else is there to say?