Media Diary: Gävle goat

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I was thinking about making a last media diary post about my Christmas media habits. Like what kind of movies or music I like to consume during this holiday. But, I don't think I have almost any anymore.

Except maybe this one news-related thing, Gävlebocken, the Gävle goat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat


You may know about this tradition in Gävle, Sweden, where every year on the first Advent day they erect a Swedish Yule Goat made of straw. Yule goats are a Scandinavian thing, probably originating from pagan traditions of honoring gods of fertility and harvest. Or that Yule goat was a spirit that would appear near Christmas to see that all preparations were done right.

And ever since the first Gävlebocken in 1966, there has been this weird tradition of people trying to burn it down. And most of the time it succeeds. The goat is guarded by fences, cameras, guards and taxis to prevent the attempts.

The Wikipedia page documents all the failures and successes to protect the Gävlebocken. This year there has already been one failed attempt on the other, Natural Science Club's goat (there are actually two goats)

Here are my favorite reports of the burning attempts from that Wiki page:

2010: (Survived) "On 17 December, 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."

2009: (Burned) "On the night of 23 December 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.[36]The goat had two online webcams which were put out of service by a DoS attack, instigated by computer hackers just before the burning.

2005: (Burned) Burnt by unknown vandals reportedly dressed as Santa and the gingerbread man, by shooting a flaming arrow at the goat."

So yes, I'm moderately excited to see what happens this year. 

And to end my diaries with even more holiday spirit, here's a photo of my friend's stuffed red deer with lights. (To compensate for the fact that I don't have a picture of my dinosaur lights)




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