Hope springs eternal, including in Sweden’s city of Gävle, which has once again built a Christmas goat that is, almost by tradition, destroyed by arsonists before the holiday is over.
The latest version of the goat, called the Gävlebocken, has been a featured display in the town square for 57 years; over that time, it’s been burned to the ground more years than not. In recent years, the goat enjoyed a safe season of four years from 2017 to 2020, but in 2021, almost at the last minute, it was torched. Last year it survived.
This year’s goat is a bit different from previous years because of a warm early summer followed by heavy rains, which resulted in a lighter color, and a shaggier appearance for the goat. But that may not be enough disguise to fool the firebugs.
UPDATE
As of December 16, the Gävle goat is still safe from fire, but is suffering a different kind of bad luck: it’s being eaten to death by jackdaws, seen below feasting on the Christmas icon.
The extremely wet weather Sweden had last summer left an unusually large amount of grain on the straw from which the goat is made, with a flock of jackdaws pulling the goat apart, with straw tumbling to the ground as a result.