đ„đIMPORTANT NEWS EVERYONE: the 2022 inauguration of GĂ€vlebocken will take place on November 27th, 16.00 Swedish time, and the construction will begin 12.00 on October 15th. Barring any outside interference he will stand in his place until the end of New Yearâs Day. Plan your betting pools accordingly.
The location has changed to RĂ„dhustorget this year due to construction work, which will be the first time ever where he wonât be at Slottstorget. The goat will stand in a 25m x 25m area adjacent to a 2.5m x 2.5m booth for the security guards. There will be a double gĂ€rdsgĂ„rd fence, but no specifics beyond that are made public âdue to security reasonsâ. We can also assume that there will be video surveillance.
The longest survival streak (4 years) was broken last year when GĂ€vlebocken burned down in the early morning of December 17th, 19 days after his inauguration:
For those new to this, GĂ€vlebocken (âThe GĂ€vle Goatâ) is a 13m tall Yule goat made of straw in GĂ€vle, Sweden, that is built as part of the cityâs annual Christmas celebrations. He is famous for repeatedly being destroyed, to the point of some considering the destruction an integral part of the tradition. GĂ€vlebocken has been completely destroyed 38 out of his 56 years, despite increased security measures and it being a crime punishable with jail time (the conviction for the 2021 arson was six months in jail and a fine).
GĂ€vlebocken also has a little brother, built by Vasaskolanâs Science Club, called Lillbocken (âThe Little Goatâ) who is smaller (1.5m tall) and not as well known but also very often sabotaged.
I really recommend reading the entire timeline section of the wiki page, its pure gold, but some of my personal favourites are: some dude stole the enormous goat and put it in his backyard (1973), an American burned the goat thinking it was legal due to how often it happened and spent 18 days in jail (2001), two people dressed as Santa and a gingerbread man burned the goat either by firing flaming arrows or throwing torches (2005), someone tried to bribe a guard with 50k SEK to leave his post early so they could steal the goat with a helicopter and fly him to Stureplan in Stockholm the same year as other guards reported being approached by a âmysterious German-speaking man that was perversely interested in the goatâ who told them of his detailed ideas of how to make the goat burn down quickly (2010).
Webcam (comes online after the inauguration): https://visitgavle.se/en/gavlebocken
Official twitter account: https://twitter.com/gavlebocken
Official instagram account: https://instagram.com/gavlebocken
Youtube channel of GĂ€vle city (will stream the inauguration): https://youtube.com/user/sharegavle
