The Gäle Goat is a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule Goat figure made of straw. It is erected each year by local community groups at the beginning of Advent over a period of two days. The display has become notable for being a recurring target for vandalism by arson, and has been destroyed many times since the first goat was erected in 1966.
About Gävle goat in brief
The Gävle Goat is a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule Goat figure made of straw. It is erected each year by local community groups at the beginning of Advent over a period of two days. The display has become notable for being a recurring target for vandalism by arson, and has been destroyed many times since the first goat was erected in 1966. As of December 2019, the goat has been damaged 37 times. Burning the goat is illegal and the offence should normally carry a 3-month prison sentence as it sentenced a 27-year old man to a suspended sentence and day fines for aggravated property damage in 2018. The goat is rebuilt on 13 December, the feast day of Saint Lucia, if it is burned down before the end of the month. The cost for the 1966 goat was SEK 10,000.
The price tag for constructing the goat in 2005 was around 100,000 Swedish kronor. The city pays one-third of the cost while the Southern Merchants pay the remaining sum. The Natural Science Club of the School of Vasa began building the structure in 1971. Their goat was around 2 metres. Due to the positive reaction their goat received that year, they built another one the following year and from then on. The Southern Merchants began building their own goats again in 1986. Since 2003 the construction of the Goat has been undertaken by a group of unemployed people known as ALU workers. In 2004 the Gäle Goat’s homepage was hacked into and one of the two official webcams changed. One year, security guards were posted around the goat to prevent further vandalism.
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This page is based on the article Gävle goat published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 10, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
