The Gävle Goat was burned in the early hours of 17 December. (The small one burned 12 December) A 40-year-old man was arrested.
THE WORLD’S LARGEST STRAW GOAT
The peculiar story about the Gävle Goat started in 1966, when someone came up with the idea to design a giant version of the traditional Swedish Christmas straw goat. The objective was to attract customers to the shops and restaurants in the southern part of the city. On the first Sunday of Advent 1966, the huge goat was placed at the Castle Square. Since then, the Gävle Goat has been a Christmas symbol placed in the same spot every year. Today he is world famous. The goat is the world’s largest straw goat and made it to the Guinness Book of Records for the first time in 1985.
WORTH KNOWING ABOUT THE GAVLE GOAT
- The Gävle Goat is 13 metres (42.6 feet) high, seven metres long and weighs 3.6 tonnes.
- It takes a whole truck full of straw from the local village of Mackmyra to create the goat.
- 1,600 meters of rope is used.
- 12,000 knots are tied.
- 56 five metre straw mats form the straw coat.
- 1,200 metres of Swedish pine create the wooden skeleton.
- 1,000 man-hours of work are needed to build the Gävle Goat.
- The Gävle Goat is inaugurated on the first Sunday of Advent every year, in conjunction with the “skyltsöndagen”.
- The Gävle Goat has friends in more than 120 countries around the world who follow him in social media.
- In 2015, 420,000 people visited the Gävle Goat, dressed in a flower coat, when he was on tour in the Chinese twin town of Zhuhai.
- The Gävle Goat has been hit by a cruising car and been subjected to fire and sabotage over the years.
- Staged hacker attacks and kidnappings have also been planned.
There is a webcam placed at Castle Square, where you can follow the Gävle Goat from the first Sunday of Advent until after New Year or until the sad day that he meets his notorious fate.
Have a great Friday 😀
