The Christmas goat in Gävle, Sweden, traditionally burned down tonight, and its longest survival-streak of 5 years is finally over. May the gods be happy.

39 comments

  1. Small correction of the headline:
    This *would* have been its 5th year, had it survived all of December.
    It only survived four consecutive years, 2017-2020, which is still a record. Never before had it survived *more than two* consecutive years.

    Google translated newsarticle:
    https://www-svt-se.translate.goog/nyheter/lokalt/gavleborg/gavlebocken-har-brunnit-ner?_x_tr_sl=sv&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=sv

    —

    Context, history and timeline:

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

    https://youtu.be/-zjJpFYtx9s

  2. Wasn’t there multiple failed attempts during its survival streak? Wonder if they left out whatever it was that made it fire resistant the previous years.

  4. >May the gods be happy.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_funeral

    >Cremation
    >
    >It was common to burn the corpse and the grave offerings on a pyre. Only some incinerated fragments of metal and of animal and human bones would remain. The pyre was constructed to make the pillar of smoke as massive as possible, in order to elevate the deceased to the afterlife. The symbolism is described in the *Ynglinga* saga:
    >
    >>Thus he (Odin) established by law that all dead men should be burned, and their belongings laid with them upon the pile, and the ashes be cast into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said he, every one will come to Valhalla with the riches he had with him upon the pile; and he would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried in the earth. For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been distinguished for manhood a standing stone; which custom remained long after Odin’s time.

    I suppose that Odin’s cheery, at any rate.

  8. Do the arsonists get any punishment besides a fine? I knew about the tradition which brings a smile on my face when I read it’s another holiday where it’s burnt, but I never knew what happens to the ones that set it on fire.

  10. Finally, I feel that this will be a turning point, we only got covid after the goat had failed to burn for several years, when it was burned we never got covid.

    This is a very good sign.

  11. 2005 is my favourite:

    > Burnt by unknown vandals reportedly dressed as Santa and the gingerbread man, by shooting a flaming arrow at the goat.Reconstructed on 5 December. The hunt for the arsonist responsible for the goat-burning in 2005 was featured on the weekly Swedish live broadcast TV3’s “Most Wanted” (“Efterlyst”) on 8 December.

  13. In my town we burn such a goat on purpose in the autumn and people gather to watch, and every time I tell about it to foreigners, they think I’m talking about gävlebocken

  15. Dear swedish people,

    I have a question about the burning of the figure.

    In my part of Germany there are so-called Hutzelfeuer. We burn a lot of wood there, especially our Christmas trees, see the video.

    https://youtu.be/Q6l-kUxIrFY

    But it’s legal and we meet there and get drunk, often there’s a little party. Wouldn’t that be much simpler and more sensible?

    Why don’t you make a public festival out of it? If state authorities don’t want it burnt down, why do they keep rebuilding it?

    Fire to the gods 🤘🏻

  16. I hope this finally appeases the gods and frees us from the shackles of covid !

    See this is where we went wrong, we stopped sacrificing to the old gods and they got angry at us for it.

    Everyone should be heading to a decorations’ shop and buying wooden figurines to burn them down in our gardens !

  17. At first I thought that it’s a real tradition embraced by the locals. Then I read about it. Apparently, it’s only arsonists who attempt to do this.

    The city locals even have a Goat Committee for this goat.

    Arson aside, this is a very beautiful tradition, IMO.

  18. This is why the world have been so fucked up for the last 5 years. The goat was not offered to the gods… It’s all our fault for not doing the duty.

  31. Maybe they should just make it a part of a tradition to lit it on fire as a spectacle themselves. People seem pretty invested in seeing it burn.

  32. Given that the world went a bit loopy in 2016, when the burning was prevented and the goat stood…

    ……maybe now the balance in the cosmos will be restored.

    The gods are pleased.

  37. For a while in Iceland the ikea christmas goat would burn. It didn’t burn in 2019 and 2020 was cursed, didn’t burn in 2020 and 2021 was also cursed. It needs to burn this year to break the curse.

Leave a Reply