Sweden's arson-afflicted Christmas goat is moving after 56 years
The giant straw goat erected every year in the Swedish city of Gävle is moving away from the city's Slottstorget square to a new temporary location for the next three years to allow a new culture centre to be built.
The goat, called Gävlebocken, is famed around the world for the annual battle between anonymous arsonists who try to burn it down and the city authorities, who try to keep it intact until after Christmas.
Over its 56-year-history, the arsonists have the advantage, with the goat burning down slightly more often than it has stayed intact.
After 2016, when it was burned down within hours of being inaugurated, however it remained intact until 2020, coming close to beating its four-year survival record.
It burned down again just before Christmas last year, however, with a man with soot on his hands arrested near the scene of the crime.
READ ALSO:
- Sweden’s ill-fated yule goat burns down a week before Christmas
- The five weirdest attacks on Sweden’s arson-prone yule goat
The goat will over the next three years be erected on the nearby Rådhusesplanaden while a new cultural centre is built in the Slottstorget square. It will be protected in its new location by a double row of fences, in the hope of warding off pranksters.
While it all seems like a bit of fun, it remains a crime to burn down the goat, as the American tourist Lawrence Jones discovered in 2001, when he was jailed for 18 days after he was apprehended, lighter in hand as he watched the goat burn.
Jones told a court he had been misled by Swedish 'friends' who had insisted that torching the straw goat was a perfectly legal Swedish tradition.
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The goat, called Gävlebocken, is famed around the world for the annual battle between anonymous arsonists who try to burn it down and the city authorities, who try to keep it intact until after Christmas.
Over its 56-year-history, the arsonists have the advantage, with the goat burning down slightly more often than it has stayed intact.
After 2016, when it was burned down within hours of being inaugurated, however it remained intact until 2020, coming close to beating its four-year survival record.
It burned down again just before Christmas last year, however, with a man with soot on his hands arrested near the scene of the crime.
READ ALSO:
- Sweden’s ill-fated yule goat burns down a week before Christmas
- The five weirdest attacks on Sweden’s arson-prone yule goat
The goat will over the next three years be erected on the nearby Rådhusesplanaden while a new cultural centre is built in the Slottstorget square. It will be protected in its new location by a double row of fences, in the hope of warding off pranksters.
While it all seems like a bit of fun, it remains a crime to burn down the goat, as the American tourist Lawrence Jones discovered in 2001, when he was jailed for 18 days after he was apprehended, lighter in hand as he watched the goat burn.
Jones told a court he had been misled by Swedish 'friends' who had insisted that torching the straw goat was a perfectly legal Swedish tradition.
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