The Gävle Goat Guess

24 Festive Tasks: Door 17 – St. Lucia’s Day, Task 4:

Guess (scout’s honor, NO GOOGLING!): Did the Gävle Goat survive this year?

For background: The Gävle Goat is a straw effigy erected in Gävle, Sweden, every year at the beginning of Advent.  It is infamous for being burned down ahead of time, which as of Advent 2017 has happened in 37 of the 51 years of the tradition’s existence. – The Yule goat lore in turn goes back all the way to the Norse myths, where the god Thor rode a chariot drawn by two goats, and to ancient Indo-European and proto-Slavic beliefs according to which the harvest god appeared in the shape of a goat.  Possibly, it is also linked with Santa Claus and his reindeer-driven sled.

 


The 2009 edition of the Gävle goat
(images collected when compiling the St. Lucia’s Day tasks)

Ever the optimist, I’m guessing the Goat has survived / will survive this year.  IIRC, it did last year as well — hopefully that means they’ve finally learned how to keep the vandals in check!

 

Original post:
ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1818403/24-festive-tasks-door-17-st-lucia-s-day-task-4-gavle-goat

One thought on “The Gävle Goat Guess”

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Lifestyle

Happy Holidays from My Home to Yours!

Have a lovely holiday weekend, however and whichever way you’re spending it. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus, and Happy Newtonmas!

Read More
Blog Cooking - Food - Drink Lifestyle

Easter 2022

… and Passover, and Springtime. I hope you’re having a wonderful, sun-filled, relaxing weekend! This is how Easter Sunday started hereabouts:

Read More
Blog Cats Lifestyle

Bonn: Retro Views

One of the few things that helped keeping my spirits up while away was trying my hand at a sort of color-faux-iPhone version of “classic movie night time scenery” views (as in: set in Europe), courtesy of an endless series of night sessions in my cooperation partners’ new office, which is right on Bonn’s main […]

Read More
%d bloggers like this: