I am currently studying my semester abroad in Gävle, Sweden. Gävle is the home of one of Sweden´s most famous christmas traditions: the Gävle Goat.

The peculiar story of the Gävle Goat started in 1966, when the idea arose to design a giant version of the traditional Swedish Christmas straw goat. Since then, the Gävle Goat has been a Christmas symbol placed in the same spot every year. Over the years and decades the goat has become well known far across Sweden´s borders. It even made it into the Guinness Book of Records in 1985. Each year, hundreds of thousands of fans from all around the world follow the spectacle via webcam and social media.

However, the Gävle Goat has become a well-known and widely discussed phenomenon not for the reasons you would imagine. It is not because of its size, or because of how it represents the beginning of the countdown to Christmas. No, Gävle Goat is in fact primarily associated with vandalism. Unlike other traditions especially in nordic countries, where something is built from straw with the intent to burn it down, the Gävle Goat is not supposed to destroyed. Still, throughout its more than 50 years long history, it has been burned down, been crashed into, or in other ways destroyed more than 35 times. The uncertainty of the fate of the Gävle Goat generates significant attention every year and has led to its annual inauguration becoming a well-attended event.