The curious deaths of the Gävle Goats

The Gävle Goat (Swedish: Gävlebocken) is a traditional Christmas display erected annually at Slottstorget (Castle Square) in central Gävle, Sweden. The display is a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule goat figure made of straw. It is erected each year by local community groups at the beginning of Advent over a period of two days. However, what marks the goat as unusual is that it has been destroyed by vandals (usually arsonists) pretty much every year since it was first erected in 1966. 

As of December 2022, 38 out of 57 goats have been destroyed or damaged in some way.

Since 1986, two separate Yule goats have been 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. Neither is immune from attack. 

In 1966 the goat was destroyed by fire. It survived 1967 and 1968 (a fence had been built around it). But then it was burnt down again in 1969 and 1970. 

In 1971 it was smashed to pieces. In 1972 it collapsed and in 1973 someone stole it. In 1974 it was burned and it once again collapsed in 1975. In 1976 it was rammed by a teenager in a car. Arsonists struck again in 1977 and it was kicked to pieces in 1978. In 1979 it was burned down before it had even been completed. 

The 1980s saw both goats mostly destroyed by fire although they did survive in 1981 and 1988. The 1990s saw a range of fates with fires in 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998 and 1999. But a goat did survive the years in between.

We then enter the 21st century, Between 2000 and 2009 goats were burnt eight times but survived the other three years. 2005 was somewhat different as two men dressed as Santa and a Gingerbread Man shot the Yule Goat with burning arrows.

They survived in 2010 although there was a bizarre plot to kidnap the Yule Goat. On 17 December, a Swedish news site reported that one of the guards tasked with protecting the Southern Merchants' goat had been offered 50,000 SEK to leave his post so that the goat could be stolen via helicopter and transported to Stockholm. Both goats survived and were dismantled and returned to storage in early January 2011. 

The arsonists then returned in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and the goats survived three failed attempts in 2014. However the 2015 and 2016 both goats were burned down. The goats then enjoyed a run of four years unscathed - largely due to the erection of a double fence, 24 hour CCTVcameras, a nearby taxi rank to increase numbers of people nearby and two guards who patrolled around the area with dogs. Despite this, the arsonists returned in 2021. So, in 2022, citizen monitoring was introduced with 24-hour real-time public webcam feeds to bolster the existing security. And the goats survived!

All of which brings us to 2023. Have the goats fared well? 

No.

But it's not arsonists or helicopter thieves or wannabe Robin Hoods to blame this year.

It's birds.

Due to a wet harvest the straw used to construct the goats contains higher than usual amounts of seed, so they have been severely damaged by flocks of jackdaws foraging for food.

As one Facebook commentator wag said, 'It's gonna be a pretty funny addition to the Wikipedia article's chart. Fire, fire, fire, survived, fire, fire, survived, fire, BIRDS.'

The question now, of course, is ... what is the tradition these days? The goat or trying to destroy it?