All during the Christmas season, I follow the Gävle Goat’s Twitter feed, half dreading, half hoping for disaster.

Now, for the first time since 2016, tragedy has struck. In the wee hours of the morning yesterday, the Natural Science Goat – the Big Goat’s “little brother” – was burned.

The Gävle Goat, basically a 40-foot version of those miniature tree ornaments you sometimes see, made of straw and bound by red ribbon, is erected annually in Castle Square, Gävle, Sweden. The Goat is constructed over a period of two days, just in time for Advent.

Then begins an unsanctioned game of cat-and-mouse, with the authorities attempting to guard the Goat, while everyone else attempts to light it off. If the Goat is burned to the ground before December 13 (today, St. Lucia’s Day), it is rebuilt. Whether that courtesy will be extended to the Little Goat is unclear.

This is all highly illegal, by the way. Neither the police nor the local businesses that rely on the Goat to draw tourists are terribly happy when there’s been an immolation.

Nevertheless, over the years, the Goat has been damaged by fireworks, rammed by a Volvo, stomped to pieces, fired upon with flaming arrows (launched by vandals dressed as Santa and gingerbread men), and torched by a hapless American, who was egged-on by Swedes who convinced him that doing so was an accepted holiday tradition. (It’s not; he was fined $14,700 and spent a month in jail.) In 2010, there was even a failed attempt to abduct the Goat by helicopter.

2016 was the last year the Big Goat went up in flames, set ablaze within hours of its construction. The catastrophe was timed to coincide with a security guard’s bathroom break. At five years, this is the longest the larger Goat has survived.

The Gävle Goat has been a Christmas staple since 1966, but its origins reach back into the shadowy past of Northern Europe, when wacky pagan traditions enlivened midwinter celebrations. The Yule Goat may have derived from the worship of Thor. The God of Thunder’s chariot was drawn by two goats. The Christmas version of the goat was led about by Saint Nicholas, possibly as a symbol of the subjugation of evil.

Whatever the goat’s function, it’s been around for hundreds of years. A time there was when rowdy young men in costumes would travel door to door to enact plays and demand gifts. One of these assumed the role of the ornery Yule Goat. For this reason, Scandinavians sometimes refer to the practice of wassailing as “going Yule Goat.”

In the 19th century, the Goat’s role was transformed into a giver of gifts. Though the Goat has since been replaced by a humanoid Father Christmas, in Finland he is still referred to by the name Joulupukki (literally Yule Goat).

A second, smaller goat appeared in Gävle in 1986. Well, it’s not always smaller. There were a couple of dust-ups early on as it attempted to usurp the Guinness title for “Largest Yule Goat.” But usually it’s smaller, at around 7-feet. The larger Goat is sponsored by the Southern Merchants. The little goat was added by the Natural Science Club of the School of Vasa. For the most part, the goats coexist peacefully in Castle Square.

2019 was the last time the “kid” was singed, but not destroyed.

Personally, I always wanted to see the Big Goat get it. Now that his little brother’s been torched, I’m not so sure. Maybe I’m selling out.

Sending a prayer to St. Lucy to watch over Gävle.

You’ll find more information and a complete history of the Gävle Goat’s destruction here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat

Excellent time-lapse burning of the Goat:

Follow the Goat’s Twitter feed:

https://twitter.com/Gavlebocken?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor&fbclid=IwAR2pcYCT6GtFiIk0p-XO-FJrLy_LDUeDL5G7N64FJxVnIMf2FJIknpAKBVE

View the live webcam:

https://www.visitgavle.se/en/gavlebocken

And to keep it musical, here’s a Christmas song by Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén: