Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 14:38, 15 November 2016

The Gävle Goat (Gävlebocken) is a traditional Christmas display erected annually at Slottstorget in central Gävle, Sweden. It is a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule Goat figure made of straw. It is erected each year at the beginning of Advent over a period of two days by local community groups.

History

The Gävle Goat is erected every year on the first day of Advent, which according to Western Christian tradition is in late November or early December, depending on the calendar year. In 1966, an advertising consultant, Stig Gavlén, came up with the idea of making a giant version of the traditional Swedish Yule Goat and placing it in the square. The design of the first goat was assigned to the then chief of the Gävle fire department, Gavlén's brother Jörgen Gavlén. The construction of the goat was carried out by the fire department, and they erected the goat each year from 1966 to 1970 and from 1986 to 2002. The first goat was financed by Harry Ström. On 1 December 1966, a 13-metre (43 ft) tall, 7-metre (23 ft) long, 3-tonne goat was erected in the square. On New Year's Eve, the goat was burnt down.

A group of businessmen known as the Southern Merchants (Söders Köpmän) financed the building of the goat in subsequent years. In 1971, the Southern Merchants stopped building the goats. The Natural Science Club of the School of Vasa began building the structure. Their goat was around 2 metres (6.6 ft). Due to the positive reaction their Yule Goat received that year, they built another one the following year and from then on.

The cost for the 1966 goat was SEK 10,000. The price tag for constructing the goat in 2005 was around 100,000 Swedish kronor. The city pays one-third of the cost while the Southern Merchants pay the remaining sum. Since 2003 the construction of the goat has been undertaken by a group of unemployed people known as ALU workers.

The display has become notable for being a recurring target for vandalism by arson, and has been destroyed several times since the first goat was erected in 1966. Because the fire station is close to the location of the goat, most of the time the fire can be extinguished before the wooden skeleton is severely damaged. If the goat is burned down before December 13th, the feast day of Saint Lucia, the goat has been rebuilt. The skeleton is then treated and repaired, and the goat reconstructed over it, using straw which the Goat Committee has pre-ordered. To date four people have been caught or convicted for vandalizing the goat. In 2001, the goat was burned down by Lawrence Jones, a 51-year-old visitor from Cleveland, Ohio in the United States, who spent 18 days in jail and was subsequently convicted and ordered to pay 100,000 Swedish kronor in damages. The court confiscated Jones' 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 returned to the US without paying his fine.

In 1996, the Southern Merchants introduced camera surveillance to monitor the goat 24 hours a day. On 27 November 2004 the Gävle Goat's homepage was hacked into and one of the two official webcams changed. One year, while security guards were posted around the goat in order to prevent further vandalism, the temperature dropped far below zero. As the guards ducked into a nearby restaurant to escape the cold, the vandals struck.

During the weekend of 3–4 December 2005 a series of attacks on public Yule Goats across Sweden were carried out; The Gävle Goat was burnt on 3 December. The Visby goat on Gotland burned down, the Yule Goat in Söderköping, Östergötland was torched, and there was an attack on a goat located in Lycksele, Västerbotten.

The Christmas season of 2006 marked the 40th anniversary of the Gävle Goat, and, on Sunday 3 December, the city held a large celebration in honor of the goat. The Goat Committee fireproofed the goat with "Fiber ProTector Fireproof", a fireproofing substance that is used in airplanes. In earlier years when the goat had been fireproofed, the dew had made the liquid drip off the goat. To prevent this from happening in 2006, "Fireproof ProTechtor Solvent Base" was applied to the goat. Despite their efforts, the goat has been destroyed a total of 28 times up until the most recent incident on 27 December 2015 where the goat was torched by vandals once again.

Timeline

Natural Science Club's Yule Goat

Since 1986 there have been two Yule Goats built in Gävle: the Gävle Goat by the Southern Merchants and the Yule Goat built by the Natural Science Club of the School of Vasa. Until 1985 the Southern Merchants held the world record for the largest Yule Goat, but over the years the Natural Science Club's goat increased in size, and in 1985 their Yule Goat made it into the Guinness Book of Records with an official height of 12.5 metres (41 ft). The creator of the original 1966 goat, Stig Gavlén, thought that the Natural Science Club's goat had unfairly won the title of the largest Yule Goat because the goat was not as attractive as the Southern Merchants' goat and the neck was excessively long. The next year there was a Goat war: the Southern Merchants understood the publicity value, and erected a huge goat, the Natural Science Club erected a smaller one in protest. The Southern Merchants had intended that their huge goat would reclaim the world record, but the measurement of the goat showed it fell short. Over the following seven years there were no further attempts on the world record, but there was some bad feeling between the Natural Science Club and the Southern Merchants, evidenced by the fact that the Natural Science Club put up a sign near their goat wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone, except the Southern Merchants.

In 1993 the Southern Merchants again announced that they were going to attempt the world record. The goat stood 10.5 metres (34 ft) when completed. The Natural Science Club's Yule Goat that year measured 14.9 metres (49 ft), which earned them another place in the Guinness Book of Records.

See also

• Baby Jesus theft

Footnotes

• ^1 Black Jack at IMDb

References

1. "Mer Jul i Gävle - Goat film". Merjuligavle.se. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
2. "bocken". Retrieved 1 December 2012.
3. "The biggest Christmas Goat in the world". Gävle Tourist Office. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
4. "Christmas 2012: The Swedish goat that takes Christmas by the horns - Telegraph". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
5. ^ "Gävlebocken". Gävle City Guide (in Swedish). CityGuide. 2003.
6. ^ "Julbocken" (in Swedish). Naturvetenskapliga Föreningen. Retrieved 26 August 2006.
7. ^ "New goat is already on the way" (in Swedish). Arbetarbladet. 6 December 2005. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
8. "Gävlebocken på plats - hur länge får den stå?". Expressen. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
9. "TV 3's Most Wanted is now eager to solve the goat mystery" (in Swedish). Arbetarbladet. 7 December 2005.
10. ^ "The goat is burning!" (in Swedish). Dagens Nyheter. 12 December 2003. Archived from the original on 1 October 2007.
11. ^ Forsberg, Rose-Marie. "The famous christmasgoat of Sweden". Retrieved 6 December 2006.
12. ^ "Vandals Burn Swedish Christmas Goat, Again". Stockholm: The Washington Post. Associated Press. 4 December 2005.
13. ^ "Santa and gingerbread man get Gävle's goat". The Local. 4 December 2005.
14. ^ "That's why I burned the goat in Gävle" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. 17 December 2003.
15. "Gävle Goat gets hacked" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. 27 November 2004.
16. "The night of the goat-burners" (in Swedish). Göteborgs-Posten. 3 December 2005. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
17. "Police receives tips about the goat-burnings" (in Swedish). Göteborgs-Posten. 5 December 2005. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
18. "Mer Jul i Gävle". Retrieved 6 December 2006.
19. "Not even napalm can set fire to the goat now" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. 1 December 2006.
20. "Swedish city strives to safeguard Christmas straw goat from vandals". Santa Fe New Mexican. Associated Press. 4 December 2006.
21. "Gävlebocken överlevde inte nyåret". Dagens Nyheter. 27 December 2015.
22. "The Gävle goat timeline" (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 12 June 2008.
23. ^ "Weird ritual of the burning goat". BBC News. 4 December 2005.
24. ^ "Santa torched the giant goat!". Sploid. 4 December 2005.
25. BBC News (27 December 2008). "Festive goat up in flames again". BBC News.
26. "The goat is burning-year after year" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. 13 December 2003.
27. "Christmas straw goat burnt in Sweden". MSNBC. 27 December 2008.
28. "The unburnable goat says thanks" (in Swedish). Arbetarbladet. 3 January 2007.
29. "Gävle Goat Blog".
30. "Yule Goat of Gävle was inaugurated" (in Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. 30 December 2008.
31. "Attacked last night!".
32. "Little brother not well".
33. "Gavlebocken".
34. "Swedish Christmas straw goat burnt". BBC News. 23 December 2009.
35. "Vandals torch Swedish Yuletide straw goat for 24th time". USA Today. 23 December 2009. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
36. "Gävle Goat to be saved by ice". Radio Sweden. 22 November 2011.
37. Martin, Rebecca (2 December 2011). "Sweden's Christmas goat succumbs to flames". The Local. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
38. "Mer Jul i Gävle - kl 16 vid Slottstorget". Merjuligavle.se. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
39. "Reklamvärde i attentat mot Gävlebock" (in Swedish). 13 December 2012.
40. "Gävle confident its 2013 Xmas goat won't burn". thelocal.se. 30 November 2013.
41. Staff (21 December 2013). "Vandals torch Sweden's giant Christmas goat for the 27th time". Global News.
42. "Gävlebocken överlevde inte nyåret". Dagens Nyheter. 27 December 2015.

External links

• Gävle goat webcam
• Gävle goat blog
• Gävle goat history

• Use dmy dates from November 2012
• Swedish culture
• Gävle
• Christmas traditions
• Christmas characters
• Straw art
• Buildings and structures in Gävleborg County
• Vandalized works of art
• Fires in Sweden