Looking into the Yule goat has sent me down a strange internet rabbit-hole. What's the deal with the burning of the goat? As this is in Sweden, is this something Denmark shares?
Gävlebocken is a Swedish tradition, a giant straw goat put up as a holiday decoration in one town.
Buckle up, this is a wall of text incoming:
Really this holiday goat (Julebuk in Danish) is spread out in Scandinavia, and comes in many sizes as cute lil decorations for the home. Is made of straw in the shape of a goat, as callback to the good olden times where most traditions for Yule in Scandinavia was shaped beyond just being some old celebration for winter solstice. An easy decoration for creative farmers to make for the holidays when winter kept them shut in their farms.
It is NOT a tradition to burn the goat, mind you!
Now this SPECIFIC huge arse goat has its own story.
Because since that town in Sweden began setting up this extra large one as a tradition for itself, a new tradition emerged. Unknown arsonists began setting it on fire. Every year trying a way to sneak up close and put the hay on fire, just because it can be done.
One year it was a burning arrow sent at it.
Now this was not something the officials of that town approved of. For one, quite a fire hazard and always a danger to everyone else to set something like that on fire. Secondly the waste of the tax money used on putting it up just to watch hoodlums' destroy it. Of course you can always ask why they would keep putting it back up each year, but I have no idea why. Possibly the Internet meme it became locally was good for attention and tourism.
The last.. I think 4 years? More measures have been taken to keep it from burning, such as dousing it in liquids that can't burn, and set up a surveillance to spook away any arsonist who doesn't wanna get caught and arrested for this kind of mishap.
A lot of Internet attention came upon this goat thanks to Goat Watch on the podcast WTFIWWY (Short for What The Fuck Is Wrong With You) that likes to share crazy news stories from recent weeks. And learning the history of the amount of times this goat was put on fire, they dedicated each year to keep watch to see how and when it would burn again. Especially so after the latest measures came up to keep the goat safe the last few years.
The hosts then began, jokingly, create this conspiracy that the very reason why the last few years majorly sucked was BECAUSE the goat didn't burn as a sacrifice to the eldritch gods.
And, that's the meme.
The Goat has burned this very December at last. Now we hope it'll please the higher powers and stop the last few years' of madness.
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