Yule Goat Glögg

General information

Yule Goat! The Gävle Christmas Goat…

Even called Julbocken in Swedish. The Yule Goat, is a traditional yule and christmas symbol in the Scandinavian culture that comes from the pre-christian days and it is still seen nowadays. It basically is a goat made of straw with enormous horns and sometimes decorated wit red lazes.

History

There are many theories about the tradition of this straw goat and it has changed in time. In the beginning, it probably was a representation of Thor and his two goats. In Sweden, people saw it as a spirit who came before christmas and ensure the preparations for the Yule were done properly. Another tradition in the Scandinavian society, was to hide one Julbock in their neighbor’s houses. Whoever found one of these goats in their house had to get rid of it in the same way, playing the same prank to another neighbor.

in the 19th century, the tradition changed again. It was then seen as a figure that attracted presents during christmas, probably influenced by the figure of Santa Claus.

The Gävle Goat

The most famous Yule Goat in Sweden is located in the town of Gävle. This giant Goat is built in two days every year just before advent. The first goat was built in 1966, a 13 meters high goat in a square in Gävle for everybody to see. Another enormous goat is also built in Gävle by the Natural Science Club of the School of Vasa. On New Year’s Eve, the first goat got burned, starting a history of destruction for the following Gävle Goats. Since then, around 45% of the goats built in Gävle have been destroyed, most of them burnt. For that reason, the Gävle Goat tradition stopped from 1970 to 1986. Since then, all kind of measures have been taken to avoid the sabotage of the goat, including measures such as security cameras or fireproofed goats. The last goat today (2012) was the 26th to be set on fire, a goat that by 2005 cost around 100,000SEK to build.