Gävle goat
Encyclopedia
Gävle
Gävle is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 71,033 inhabitants in 12/31 2010. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland , having received its charter in 1446 from Christopher of Bavaria.-History:It is believed that the name Gävle...
, is a giant version of a traditional Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
Yule Goat
Yule Goat
The Yule Goat is one of the oldest Scandinavian and Northern European Yule and Christmas symbols and traditions. Originally denoting the goat that was slaughtered during the Germanic pagan festival of Yule, "Yule Goat" now typically refers to a goat-figure made of straw...
figure made of straw
Straw
Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and...
. It is erected each year over a period of two days by a local association called the Southern Merchants in time for the start of advent
Advent
Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday, called Levavi...
. Another version is erected by a group of students from the Natural Science Club of the School of Vasa
House of Vasa
The House of Vasa was the Royal House of Sweden 1523-1654 and of Poland 1587-1668. It originated from a noble family in Uppland of which several members had high offices during the 15th century....
. The Natural Science Club's goat holds the world record for the largest Yule Goat, but since 1994 the Southern Merchants' goats have been larger and have had more publicity. The goats have become the subject of a 'tradition' of regularly being torched by vandals.
History
The history of the Gävle Goat began 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 a man named Harry Ström. On 1 December 1966, a 13 metres (42.7 ft) tall, 7 metres (23 ft) long, 3-tonne goat was erected in the square. However, at the stroke of midnight on New Year's EveNew Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
, the goat went up in flames.
The financing for the initial goats came from a group of businessmen known as the Southern Merchants (Söders Köpmän), so named because all their members were located on the southern side of Gävleån
Gavleån
Gavleån, Gävleån or Gävle River is a watercourse in the middle Gästrikland of Sweden from Storsjön to Gävle Bay in the Bothnian Sea....
("Gävle river"), a river that runs through central Gävle dividing the town into north and south. In 1971, the Southern Merchants became so frustrated with the continual burning of their goats, that for 15 years they stopped building them, and the task was taken up by the Natural Science Club of the School of Vasa. The Natural Science Club's Yule Goat fared no better; besides being burnt and vandalised, one year it was even run over by a car. From 1988 onward, English bookmaker
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
s made it possible to bet on the goat's destiny. In 1996 the Southern Merchants introduced webcam
Webcam
A webcam is a video camera that feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi.Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera...
s to monitor the goat 24 hours a day, with little or no success. On 27 November 2004 the Gävle Goat's homepage was hacked into and one of the two official webcams changed to display "Burn Bockjaevel" (translation: Burn the damn Goat) in the left corner of its live feed. 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. Before they even had a chance to raise their glasses they saw flames shooting from the goat through the restaurant window. During the weekend of December 3-4, 2005 a series of attacks on public Yule Goats across Sweden were carried out; The Gävle Goat was burnt on December 3, which escalated into a frenzy of copycat goat-burning across Sweden. The Visby
Visby
-See also:* Battle of Visby* Gotland University College* List of governors of Gotland County-External links:* - Visby*...
goat on Gotland
Gotland
Gotland is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden; it is Sweden's largest island and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, the region makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area...
burned down, the Yule Goat in Söderköping
Söderköping
Söderköping is a locality and the seat of Söderköping Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 6,951 inhabitants in 2005. Söderköping is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred to as a city...
, Östergötland
Östergötland
Östergötland, English exonym: East Gothland, is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland, and the Baltic Sea. In older English literature, one might also encounter the Latinized version, Ostrogothia...
was torched, and there was an attack on a goat located in Lycksele
Lycksele
- References :...
, Västerbotten
Västerbotten
', English exonym: West Bothnia, is a province or landskap in the north of Sweden. It borders Ångermanland, Lapland, Norrbotten and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is famous for the cheese with the same name as the province.- Administration :...
. That goat escaped with only minor burn marks on the legs.
Swedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
(as of 2005). The cost for the 1966 goat was SEK 10,000. 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). Nowadays, if the goat is burned down before Lucia (feast day of Saint Lucy
Saint Lucy
Saint Lucy , also known as Saint Lucia, was a wealthy young Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint by Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Orthodox Christians. Her feast day in the West is 13 December; with a name derived from lux, lucis "light", she is the patron saint of those who are...
, December 13), it will be rebuilt. The Gävle Goat is erected every year on the first day of Advent
Advent
Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday, called Levavi...
, which according to Western Christian tradition is in late November or early December, depending on the calendar year
Calendar year
Generally speaking, a calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day. By convention, a calendar year consists of a natural number of days. To reconcile the calendar year with an astronomical cycle , certain years...
. In recent years, the so-called "Goat Committee" have had a plan for a backup
Backup
In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
goat. Because the fire station is close to the location of the goat, most of the time the fire can be extinguished before the robust wooden skeleton is severely damaged. The skeleton is then treated and repaired, and the goat reconstructed over it, using straw which the Goat Committee has pre-ordered.
Burning the goat is an illegal act and can result in severe fines or even prison time for arson. However, during the 39 years of the Gävle Goat's history up to 2005, only four people have been caught or convicted. The burning of the Gävle Goat is not officially welcomed by the citizens of Gävle, but it has made the goat famous and led to increased tourism. The Department of Tourism in Gävle gets bombarded with e-mails from all over the world questioning whether the city supports the burning of the Gävle Goat. Officially the city says that it does not support the burnings.
The Christmas season of 2006 marked the 40th anniversary
Anniversary
An anniversary is a day that commemorates or celebrates a past event that occurred on the same day of the year as the initial event. For example, the first event is the initial occurrence or, if planned, the inaugural of the event. One year later would be the first anniversary of that event...
of the Gävle Goat, and, on Sunday 3 December, the city held a large celebration in honor of the goat. The Goat Committee claimed that it was not going to be possible to set that year's goat on fire because it was fireproofed with "Fiber ProTector Fireproof", a fireproofing substance that is used in airplanes. In earlier years when the goat had been fireproofed, the dew
Dew
[Image:Dew on a flower.jpg|right|220px|thumb|Some dew on an iris in Sequoia National Park]]Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening...
had made the liquid drip off the goat. To prevent this from happening in 2006, "Fireproof ProTechtor Solvent Base" was applied to the goat. The Goat Committee's faith in the fireproofing for the 2006 goat led them to cut down on guards, and furthermore they boldly claimed that "the goat will never burn again". Freddy Klassmo, the spokesman for the company that provided the fireproofing in 2006, stated that "not even napalm
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
can set fire to the goat now". The claims were not generally given much credence: even the chief of the Gävle fire brigade expressed his doubts. But the fireproofing did its job and although the Gävle goat was scorched on one leg, it did not catch fire during the one and only attempt to burn it down on 15 December 2006. The goat was disassembled and put into storage. It re-emerged on 29 November 2007, with re-construction finished on 30 November 2007.
Gävle Goat and Natural Science Club's Yule Goat
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 finally 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. To everybody's surprise their goat only measured 10.5 metres (34.4 ft) when completed. The Natural Science Club's Yule Goat that year measured 14.9 metres (48.9 ft), which earned them another place in the Guinness Book of World Records. As of 2005 that goat still holds the world record since there have been no further attempts to beat it. The Natural Science Club say that they will not attempt a new world record as long as the Southern Merchants do not either.
Nowadays the Natural Science Club's goat is smaller than the record-holding goat, and it is also smaller than the Southern Merchants' Gävle Goat.
Timeline
- 1966 Stig Gavlén came up with the idea of a giant goat made out of straw. But it turned out that Gavlén organisation did not have enough funding for the goat. Then Harry Ström, who at that time was the chairman of the Södra Kungsgatan Ideella Förening (a non-profit society), decided to pay the whole cost for the goat out of his own pocket. The goat stood until midnight of New Year's Eve, when it went up in flames. The perpetrator, who was from HoforsHoforsHofors is a locality and the seat of Hofors Municipality, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 7,021 inhabitants in 2005.-Districts:*Born *Böle*Bönhusberget*Centrum*Göklund*Hammaren*Lillån*Muntebo*Rönningen*Silverdalen*Standarn...
, GästriklandGästrikland' is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden. It borders Uppland, Västmanland, Dalarna, Hälsingland and the Gulf of Bothnia. Gästrikland is the southernmost of the Norrland provinces....
, was found and convicted of vandalismVandalismVandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
. The first goat was insured and Ström got all his money back. - 1967 Nothing happened.
- 1968 The goat survived. Until this year there was no fence around the goat and it was popular for children to play hide-and-seek inside and around the goat. Also, it is said that one night a couple made love inside the goat. As a result, in subsequent years the inside of the goat has been protected by a chicken-wire net.
- 1969 The goat was burnt down on New Year's Eve.
- 1970 The goat 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, this time out of lake reed.
- 1971 The Southern Merchants got tired of the continual burning of their goats and stopped building them. The Natural ScienceNatural scienceThe natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...
Club (Naturvetenskapliga Föreningen:NF) from the School of Vasa (Vasaskolan) took over. Their little goat was kicked to pieces. - 1972 The goat collapsed because of sabotageSabotageSabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
. - 1973 N/A
- 1974 Burnt.
- 1975 N/A
- 1976 Hit by a car.
- 1977 N/A
- 1978 Again, the goat was kicked to pieces.
- 1979 The goat was burnt even before it was erected. A new one was built and fireproofFireproof-Track List for Original 2002 Release:# "Fireproof" – 3:46# "Just 2 Get By" – 4:17# "Echelon" – 3:25# "Stay Up" – 3:40# "Behind Closed Doors" – 2:55# "Epidemic" – 3:14# "Hindsight" – 2:57# "Light at My Feet" – 3:28# "A Shame" – 3:17...
ed. It was destroyed and broken into pieces. - 1980 Burnt down on Christmas Eve.
- 1981 Nothing happened.
- 1982 Burnt down on Lucia (December 13).
- 1983 The legs were destroyed.
- 1984 Burnt down on December 12, the night before Lucia.
- 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 InfantryInfantryInfantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
RegimentRegimentA regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
, it was burnt down in January. - 1986 The merchants of Gävle decided they were willing to build the goat once again. From this point on there were two goats built, the Southern Merchants' and the School of Vasa's. The big goat burnt down the night before Christmas Eve.
- 1987 A heavily fireproofed goat was built. It got burnt down a week before Christmas.
- 1988 Nothing happened to the goat this year, but gamblers were for the first time able to gamble on the fate of the goat with English bookmakerBookmakerA bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
s. - 1989 Again, the goat burnt down before it was assembled. Financial contributions from the public were raised to rebuild a goat that was burnt down in January. In March 1990 another goat was built, this time for the shooting of a Swedish motion picture called Black Jack.
- 1990 Nothing happened. This year the goat was guarded by many volunteers.
- 1991 This year the goat was joined by an advertising sledSledA sled, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle with a smooth underside or possessing a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners that travels by sliding across a surface. Most sleds are used on surfaces with low friction, such as snow or ice. In some cases,...
, that turned out to be illegally built. On the morning of Christmas Eve the goat was burnt down. It was later rebuilt to be taken to StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
as a part of protest campaign against the closing of the I 14 Infantry Regiment. - 1992 The goat was burnt down eight days after it was built. The Natural Science Club's goat burnt down the same night. The Southern Merchants' goat was rebuilt, but burned down on 20 December. The perpetrator of the three attacks was caught and sent to jail. This was also the year when the Goat Committee was founded.
- 1993 Once more the goat was featured in the Guinness Book of Records. This time the School of Vasa's goat measured 14.9 metres (48.9 ft). The goat was guarded by taxi and the Home Guard. Nothing happened.
- 1994 Nothing happened. This year the goat followed the Swedish national hockey team to Italy for the World Championship in hockey.
- 1995 A Norwegian was arrested for attempting to burn down the goat. Burnt down on the morning of Christmas Day. Rebuilt to be standing before the 550th anniversary of Gävle countyCountyA county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
. - 1996 Nothing happened. This was the first time that it was guarded by webcamWebcamA webcam is a video camera that feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi.Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera...
s. - 1997 Damaged by fireworksFireworksFireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
. The Natural Science Club's goat was attacked too, but survived with minor damages. - 1998 Burnt down on 11 December, even though there was a major blizzardBlizzardA blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
. Was rebuilt. - 1999 Burnt down only a couple of hours after it was erected. Rebuilt again before Lucia. The Natural Science Club's goat was burnt down as well.
- 2000 Burnt down a couple of days before New Year's Eve. The Natural Science Club's goat got tossed in the Gävle river.
- 2001 Goat set on fire on 23 December by Lawrence Jones, a 51-year-old visitor from Cleveland, OhioCleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, who spent 18 days in jail and was subsequently convicted and ordered to pay 100,000 Swedish kronorSwedish kronaThe krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
in damages. The court also confiscated Jones's cigarette lighter with the argument that he clearly was not able to handle it. Jones stated in court that he is no "goat burner", and believed that he was taking part in a completely legal goat-burning tradition. After Jones was released from prison he went straight back to the US without paying his fine. As of 2006 it is still unpaid. The Natural Science Club's goat was also burnt down this year. - 2002 A 22 year old from Stockholm tried to set the Southern Merchants' goat on fire, but failed. The goat received only minor damage. On Lucia the goat was also guarded by the Swedish radio and TV personality Gert FylkingGert FylkingGert Sten Fylking, born on October 7, 1945 in Stockholm, is a Swedish actor, journalist, politician and anchorman of the radio programme Rix MorronZoo on Rix FM, where he is known by the nickname of Fylking Sverige . He has participated in many theatre productions, films and TV programmes...
. - 2003 Burnt down on 12 December.
- 2004 Burnt 21 December, only three days before Christmas Eve. The fire brigade quickly arrived on scene, but the goat could not be saved. No new goat was built.
- 2005 Burnt by unknown vandals reportedly dressed as Santa and a gingerbread manGingerbread manA gingerbread man is a biscuit or cookie made of gingerbread, usually in the shape of a stylized human, commonly male as the name suggests, although making other shapes, especially seasonal themes and characters, is quite common as well.-History:...
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. - 2006 On the night of 15 December at 03:00, someone tried to set fire to the goat by dousing the right front leg in petrol. The red ribbonRibbonA ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily for binding and tying. Cloth ribbons, most commonly silk, are often used in connection with clothing, but are also applied for innumerable useful, ornamental and symbolic purposes...
on that leg was slightly burned and fell off. The lower part of the right leg was scorched, but the rest of the goat failed to light. The leg was repaired that morning. The Natural Science Club's goat was burned at about 00:40 on the 20th December, the vandals were not seen and got away. On the night of 25 December, a drunken man managed to climb up on the goat. Before the police arrived on the scene the man climbed down and disappeared. He did not try to set fire to the goat. The Southern Merchants' goat survived New Year's Eve and was taken down on 2 January. It is now stored in a secret location. - 2007 The Natural Science Club's goat – was toppled on 13 December. The Natural Science Club's goat was burned on the night of 24 December. The Southern Merchants' goat survived.
- 2008 10,000 people turned out for the inauguration of one of this year's goats. No back-up goat was built to replace the main goat should the worst happen, nor was the goat impregnated 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 the 16 of December the Natural Science Club's Goat was vandalised and later removed. On the 26 of December there was an attempt to burn down the Southern Merchants' Goat but 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.
- 2009 A person attempted to set the Southern Merchants' goat on fire the night of December 7. An unsuccessful attempt was made to throw the Natural Science Club's goat into the river the weekend of December 11. The culprit then tried, again without success, to set the goat on fire. Someone stole the Natural Science Club's goat utilizing a truck the night of December 14. On the night of December 23 before 04:00 the South Merchant goat was set on fire and was burned to the frame, even though it had a thick layer of snow on its back. The goat had two online webcams which were put out of service by a DoS attackDenial-of-service attackA denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...
, instigated by computer hackers just before the attack. - 2010 On the night of December 2, arsonists made an unsuccessful attempt to burn the Natural Science Club's goat. On December 17, 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 this year and were dismantled and returned to storage in early January 2011.
- 2011 The inauguration of the goat took place on November 27. This year, the fire-fighters of Gävle will spray the goat with water to create a coating of ice in the hope of protecting it from arson.
Social Media
Since 2007, the Gävle Goat has a blog and as of 2009, a Twitter account. Both are in written in Swedish and English.Statistics
| Number of goats built | Number of goats burned | Number of goats vandalised | Number of goats run over | Number of goats stolen | Total destroyed goats | Survival rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Merchants | 36 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 40% |
| Natural Science Club | 40 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 49% |
| TOTAL | 76 | 32 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 41 | 45% |
- Number of goats built includes goats rebuilt after an initial burning.
- Number of goats burned includes goats burnt down more than once and goats only partially burnt.
- Number of goats vandalised includes goats thrown in the river.