So, how's the 2019 Gavlebocken doing?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Dec 20, 2019, 02:56 PM - Edit history (1)

{Edited: this is odd. The 2015 article has an "ä" in the thread title. It isn't accepted now.}

https://twitter.com/Gavlebocken

While we all wait for the fog to clear, you can be amazed by this picture from last night instead. 🌟
#fognotsmoke #gävlebocken

Link to tweet

Gävle goat - Wikipedia

Gävlebocken – Wikipedia

IN PICTURES: Sweden's infamous Christmas goat returns for the festive season

The Local
[e-mail]
@thelocalsweden
2 December 2019
07:42 CET+01:00


Crowds watch the inauguration of the Gävle Christmas goat. Photo: Mats Åstrand / TT

A 13-metre straw goat, whose main claim to fame is that it is often destroyed by arsonists, has made its annual return to the central Swedish town of Gävle.

Each year on the first weekend of advent, the large Christmas goat is set up in the central Slottstorget square, attracting media attention and visits from thousands of locals and tourists.

The big question on everyone's lips is whether the oversized decoration will survive the festive season. It has been burned down 29 times since it first appeared in 1966, and damaged in other ways a further eight times.
....

[mopinko]

1. i mean, why wouldnt you light that on fire?

how could you not?
i love it.
and yes, i am a pyromaniac.

launch some good fireworks into it.
or shoot flaming arrows.

i wonder how it has been burned in the past. surely someone let their freak flag fly w this.

please keep an eye on this for us all. i want to see the vid of the burn, fersher.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Flaming arrows, usually, but it's coated with flame retardant now.

They got to that years ago.

[mopinko]

3. sad.

they only make c4 inevitable.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. You should read up on the history of that thing. It has a hard time making it to Christmas. NT

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. From Wednesday, December 2, 2015:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Here's Your 2015 Gävlebocken

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
[e-mail]

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.