How fine a line demarcates "arson" and "tradition"?

[magistrate]

I'm having one of those... ah, months, apparently... where I just don't care about or connect with anything. Makes writing very difficult. Also... people-ing.

But on the plus side, I have learned today about the Gävle Goat.

It is a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule Goat figure made of straw. It is erected each year at the beginning of Advent over a period of two days by local community groups, and has become famous for being destroyed in arson attacks during December. Despite security measures and the nearby presence of a fire station, the goat has been burned to the ground most years since its first appearance in 1966.

'

Wikipedia has a helpful timeline of Gävle Goats and their fates by year, including a column for "Date of Destruction." That column has such cheerful entries as "Six hours after construction" and "Prior to assembly".

Comments

[zeeth_kyrah]

I am bemused.

[magistrate]

At first I assumed that there had to be some tradition of burning effigies that these people had unwittingly crossed, but... no, so far as I can tell, there isn't one. People just see a giant goat made of straw and go "That this HAS to be set on fire."

(To be fair, I also looked at it, and thought "That looks like something people would ritually burn.")

[rionaleonhart]

I love the Gävle goat and I'm so proud when it makes it through Christmas! My personal favourite destructions are the time Father Christmas and the gingerbread man shot a flaming arrow at it, and the tourist who set it on fire, got arrested and went 'wait, I thought burning the goat was a legal tradition.'

I hope you recover your ability to connect soon! ♥

[magistrate]

I feel like if I still remember this around Advent, I'm going to need to track down some kind of webcam or news sources or something so I can join in the breathless anticipation. (It's a new spectator sport! Who's on Team Goat and who's on Team Fire?)


I think I feel most bad about the bunches of people on AO3 I left on a GIGANTIC CLIFFHANGER in my current WIP. But, ehn, these brainfails tend to show up, stick around for a while, and then see themselves out, so hopefully that'll happen sooner rather than later and I can go back to cranking out chapters.