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GÄVLE GOAT

Sweden’s Christmas goat beats the arsonists for 19th time

The giant straw Christmas goat in the city of Gävle, which is every year the subject of a battle by the authorities to prevent it being burnt down by arsonists, has survived for the 19th time in its 56-year history.

Published: 27 December 2022 08:06 CET
Sweden’s Christmas goat beats the arsonists for 19th time
The Gävle goat photographed on Boxing Day. Photo: Visit Gävle

The 13-metre high goat, called Gävlebocken, had been temporarily moved this year from Slottstorget, or “castle square”, to the Rådhusesplanaden, or “town hall esplanade”, a change goat watchers believed could give the authorities an advantage.

The goat’s own Twitter account announced its victory in a tweet issued on Christmas Day.

“I made it. Merry Christmas,” it posted in English.

In its 56 years, the goat has been burned down 30 times and damaged in other ways seven times.

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After 2016, when it was burned down within hours of being inaugurated, it remained intact until 2020, coming close to beating its four-year survival record. 

Last year, though, the goat was burnt down by a 40-year-old from Kalmar, who was later jailed for six months for aggravated vandalism and forced to pay a fine of 109,000 kronor, a deterrent that may also have increased the odds of the goat’s survival this year. 

According to the Swedish betting site Bettingsidor, it has been illegal to give odds on the goat’s survival since a new Swedish gambling license came into force in 2019. 

When The Local’s journalist, Becky Waterton, asked on Twitter whether readers thought the goat would survive this year, 61.3 percent thought it would perish before Christmas Eve.

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GÄVLE GOAT

Sweden’s arson-afflicted Christmas goat is moving after 56 years 

The giant straw goat erected every year in the Swedish city of Gävle is moving away from the city's Slottstorget square to a new temporary location for the next three years to allow a new culture centre to be built. 

Published: 3 November 2022 09:58 CET
Sweden's arson-afflicted Christmas goat is moving after 56 years 

The goat, called Gävlebocken, is famed around the world for the annual battle between anonymous arsonists who try to burn it down and the city authorities, who try to keep it intact until after Christmas. 

Over its 56-year-history, the arsonists have the advantage, with the goat burning down slightly more often than it has stayed intact.

After 2016, when it was burned down within hours of being inaugurated, however it remained intact until 2020, coming close to beating its four-year survival record. 

It burned down again just before Christmas last year, however, with a man with soot on his hands arrested near the scene of the crime. 

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The goat will over the next three years be erected on the nearby Rådhusesplanaden while a new cultural centre is built in the Slottstorget square. It will be protected in its new location by a double row of fences, in the hope of warding off pranksters. 

While it all seems like a bit of fun, it remains a crime to burn down the goat, as the American tourist Lawrence Jones discovered in 2001, when he was jailed for 18 days after he was apprehended, lighter in hand as he watched the goat burn. 

Jones told a court he had been misled by Swedish ‘friends’ who had insisted that torching the straw goat was a perfectly legal Swedish tradition.

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