December 9, and the Gävle Goat yet stands! Last year, Sweden’s 40-foot straw icon was set ablaze within hours of its construction. The catastrophe was timed to coincide with a security guard’s bathroom break.
One of Northern Europe’s wackier Christmas traditions (no doubt with pagan roots), 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 is led about by Saint Nicholas, possibly as a symbol of the subjugation of evil.
Whatever the goat’s function, it goes way back. For hundreds of years, rowdy young men in costumes would go door to door enacting plays and demanding gifts. One of these, naturally, was the ornery Yule Goat. 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 Though the Goat has since been replaced by a humanoid Father Christmas, in Finland he is still referred to by the name Joulupukki (you guessed it: Yule Goat).
Nowadays, the goat is mostly seen in its incarnation as a miniature tree ornament, made of straw and bound by red ribbon. A notable exception is the Gävle Goat, which is basically that ornament, only on the grandest of scales. The Gävle Goat is constructed over a period of two days 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. Yes, you read that correctly. If the Goat is burned to the ground before December 13 (the feast day of St. Lucia), it is rebuilt.
Over the years, the Goat has been rammed by a Volvo, damaged by fireworks, 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 talked into using his lighter by Swedes who convinced him it was a perfectly legal holiday tradition (it’s not). In 2010, there was even a failed plot to abduct the goat by helicopter.
You’ll find more information and a complete history of the Goat’s destruction here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat
Excellent time-lapse burning of the Goat:
http://travelbetweenthepages.com/…/12/22/yule-got-your-goat/
Follow the Goat’s twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/Gavlebocken?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
View the live webcam:
http://www.visitgavle.se/en/gavle-goat
To keep it musical, here’s a Christmas song by Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén:
Anyone care to start a pool?