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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,647 posts) Wed Dec 2, 2015, 02:58 PM Dec 2015

Ladies and Gentlemen, Here's Your 2015 Gävlebocken

Last edited Thu Dec 3, 2015, 10:27 AM - Edit history (1)

For those of you who just tuned in, every year this town in Sweden, Gävle, puts up a giant straw goat, the yule goat being a symbol of Christmas in Scandinavia. Also every year, someone tries to burn it down. It's a neverending game of cat and mouse. This year's Gävle goat is up.

Here's the 1998 goat. It burned up real good.

Almost all the articles are in Swedish. For example:

Tråkigt Gävle, här står Sveriges största bock

Publicerad 1 dec 2015 kl 19.11
Matias Rankinen
matias.rankinen@kvp.se

Gävlebocken har länge varit Sveriges största julbock.

I år blir den fullständigt krossad av den sydsvenska uppstickaren Fridlevstadbocken som mäter hela 15 meter.

– Det är en riktig bockajävel vi har byggt, säger Aron Nilsson som står bakom den blekingska bocken.

– Om vi inte är störst så var vi i alla fall först, säger Johan Adelsson, vikarierande bocktalesman för Sveriges näst största julbock.

Watch this thread for all the news, as it happens.

Five weirdest attacks on Sweden's straw yule goat

Published: 26 Nov 2015 10:42 GMT+01:00

An iconic Christmas straw goat that gets torched almost every year in Gävle, Sweden, was erected on Thursday. The Local takes a look at some of the most outrageous attempts to destroy it.

•Swedish town erects giant Christmas goat (27 Nov 11)
•Gävle Goat survives Christmas Eve (25 Dec 10)
•Gävle goat succumbs to flames (23 Dec 09)

Every year the massive Christmas goat (Gävlebocken) in the Slottstorget square in Gävle, central Sweden, attracts a media storm with locals dreaming up new ways to protect the 13 metre high creation.

Despite their efforts, including in some years spraying the goat in anti-flammable liquid, the goat usually goes up in flames long before Swedes have opened their Christmas presents.

In a bizarre coincidence (or is it?) the building of the first goat in 1966 was assigned to the chief of Gävle's fire department, Jörgen Gavlén, whose brother Stig Gavlén, an advertising consultant, had come up with the idea of making a giant version of the traditional Swedish Yule Goat and placing it in the square.