I was discussing Zozobra and Burning Man with a friend who clued me in to what must be the greatest of all Fiery Catharsis Voodoo Dolls: the Swedish Gävle Goat, or Gävlebocken.
First off, the goat is just really visually pleasing. It’s a Swedish Yule goat, which is evidently a straw goat with a handle. It makes a good Christmas ornament.
Alternatively, you can get the 50 foot high version.
That’s the straw goat in the middle of the town square in Gävle, Sweden. So, in the tradition of Zozobra and Burning Man, you figure that giant straw creature was made to be burned down.
Evidently there’s some disagreement about that. Ever since the first goat was erected in the 60’s, people have been driven by a compulsion to torch it. I love the city elders who stoically build it, knowing that if you build it, they will come, and they will burn it down.
Then, after years of the war between the Goat Builders and the Goat Burners, a faction decided they would make their own goat, perhaps as a decoy goat, I don’t know. The new goat was smaller and easier to demolish. The Wikipedia page has a list of the ways people found to kill the new goat. “Smashed.” “Collapsed.” “Rammed with car.”)
Then the two pro-goat factions battled each other. To quote the Wikipedia page,
“There was some hostility between the Natural Science Club and the Southern Merchants, evidenced by the fact that the Natural Science Club put up a sign near their goat wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone, except the Southern Merchants.”
I know the citizens of Gävle probably take this very seriously, but I prefer to imagine it as a merry war. Why is this not a quirky independent Christmas movie?