The Christmas Goat
I have always felt vaguely out of place in America. I feel less out of place in New York City which anyone who has been to both places will tell you is not America, culturally speaking, even though technically it is part of America. This is not putting down the culture of any particular place, just pointing out that I don’t feel like “one of the gang”. I've had a vague fish-out-of-water-type sensation for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t until my trip to Finland and Sweden in 2008 that I realized that at least part of my disconnect comes from being surrounded by people whose ancestry is either irrelevant (i.e. they have become “ideal”, fully assimilated Americans) or culturally very different than my own.
When I traveled to Sweden and Finland I felt a strange (to me) sense of belonging in both countries likely owing to the fact that my maternal grandmother was a Swede born and raised in Finland and my maternal grandfather (who I never knew) was from Sweden. When I traveled in Italy this past summer on the other hand a lot of it seemed very familiar to me (culturally speaking) which makes a world of sense considering I have lived on Staten Island my whole life. Italy didn’t leave me with the sense of longing that Sweden and Finland did after I had arrived back in the States, a need to return that will be, fate willing, taken care of in the summer of 2011.
The Mrs. really enjoyed Sweden and Finland as well, but she also in on record stating that many of the people that inhabit the land of my maternal ancestors are weird, and that they’re drunk and crazy from spending too many winter hours in the dark. That’s all well and good, but what’s my excuse? I think that’s a story for another day, perhaps, or maybe one being told constantly. Who can tell?
So what does this have to do with a Christmas goat?
Well, the Christmas goat resides in Sweden. A city called Gavle on the east coast of Sweden to be precise. The Gavle Goat has its own website that includes a web camera and a blog. Along with the web camera and blog, there is a year-by-year accounting over whether the goat was destroyed or not.
That’s right. The goat is often destroyed. Here’s what the website has to say about the history of the Gavle Christmas goat.
“The biggest Christmas Goat in the world
The strange history of the Gävle Goat began in 1966. A man named Stig Gavlén came up with the idea of making a giant version of the traditional Swedish Christmas goat of straw. The aim was to attract customers to the shops and restaurants in the southern part of the town centre.
On 2 December the 13-metre (42,6 feet) tall, 7-metre long, 3 tonne goat stood on the square. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, the goat went up in smoke. The perpetrator was found and charged with vandalism.
The Gävle Goat has been burned down 22 times since then.“
In this succinct summary there is an attitude that is one of the things that made me feel at home in Sweden and also happens to be one of the things I love about being a New Yorker: A simple, matter-of-fact view of the world. The history doesn’t try to hide the motivation behind the goat with something like “The goat was built to symbolize and honor the true spirit of the Christmas season and Gavle’s historic role in blah blah blah whatever”, it says essentially “Somebody figured if we put a big honkin’ goat statue near the shops people might come to see it and drop a few crowns while they were at it”. And then there’s that last sentence. “The Gavle Goat has been burned down 22 times since then”. Simple, to the point, not dramatic at all. No “How many times has the goat been burned? Tune into E Insider to find out!” Just a flat statement of facts. Yeah, they burn it most years. What are you going to do? You can almost see the writer shrugging as he typed it. Fantastic.
I told the Mrs. about the Gavle goat. She shook her head and once again told me “Your people are weird”. I don’t think it’s all that weird. There’s a long tradition in Nordic cultures of bonfires by bodies of water; just because your pile of wood is goat-shaped should that stop you? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not in favor of goat arson. Not one bit. But I wonder how this recent Christmas tradition will evolve. How ridiculous is it that millions of people bring dead trees in their house and hang stuff all over them every year? Would the burning of say, a goat-shaped candle or a small wooden goat be any sillier? Any of you out there who have Christmas trees (and I’m someone who does), do you even know why you drag a major fire hazard into the middle of your home for a month every year? I’ll tell you: some German guy who later got elected to sainthood got pissed off at some pagans worshiping an oak tree so he cut down the oak and a fir tree sprung up immediately. Of course, the German saint guy interpreted this as an affirmation of Christianity instead of considering that maybe the pagan gods had said “Hey man, you can’t cut down that tree, we’ll show you, ZAP!” and then of course the paperwork got all fouled up in the shipping department and the wrong tree got sent from the Great Beyond to Our Mortal Coil.
What, that doesn’t sound rational either?
Well whatever traditions you observe this time of year, be they rational or irrational or if you don’t observe any tradition at all just remember: before you mock a flaming goat, consider the fire hazards in your own home.
When I traveled to Sweden and Finland I felt a strange (to me) sense of belonging in both countries likely owing to the fact that my maternal grandmother was a Swede born and raised in Finland and my maternal grandfather (who I never knew) was from Sweden. When I traveled in Italy this past summer on the other hand a lot of it seemed very familiar to me (culturally speaking) which makes a world of sense considering I have lived on Staten Island my whole life. Italy didn’t leave me with the sense of longing that Sweden and Finland did after I had arrived back in the States, a need to return that will be, fate willing, taken care of in the summer of 2011.
The Mrs. really enjoyed Sweden and Finland as well, but she also in on record stating that many of the people that inhabit the land of my maternal ancestors are weird, and that they’re drunk and crazy from spending too many winter hours in the dark. That’s all well and good, but what’s my excuse? I think that’s a story for another day, perhaps, or maybe one being told constantly. Who can tell?
So what does this have to do with a Christmas goat?
Well, the Christmas goat resides in Sweden. A city called Gavle on the east coast of Sweden to be precise. The Gavle Goat has its own website that includes a web camera and a blog. Along with the web camera and blog, there is a year-by-year accounting over whether the goat was destroyed or not.
That’s right. The goat is often destroyed. Here’s what the website has to say about the history of the Gavle Christmas goat.
“The biggest Christmas Goat in the world
The strange history of the Gävle Goat began in 1966. A man named Stig Gavlén came up with the idea of making a giant version of the traditional Swedish Christmas goat of straw. The aim was to attract customers to the shops and restaurants in the southern part of the town centre.
On 2 December the 13-metre (42,6 feet) tall, 7-metre long, 3 tonne goat stood on the square. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, the goat went up in smoke. The perpetrator was found and charged with vandalism.
The Gävle Goat has been burned down 22 times since then.“
In this succinct summary there is an attitude that is one of the things that made me feel at home in Sweden and also happens to be one of the things I love about being a New Yorker: A simple, matter-of-fact view of the world. The history doesn’t try to hide the motivation behind the goat with something like “The goat was built to symbolize and honor the true spirit of the Christmas season and Gavle’s historic role in blah blah blah whatever”, it says essentially “Somebody figured if we put a big honkin’ goat statue near the shops people might come to see it and drop a few crowns while they were at it”. And then there’s that last sentence. “The Gavle Goat has been burned down 22 times since then”. Simple, to the point, not dramatic at all. No “How many times has the goat been burned? Tune into E Insider to find out!” Just a flat statement of facts. Yeah, they burn it most years. What are you going to do? You can almost see the writer shrugging as he typed it. Fantastic.
I told the Mrs. about the Gavle goat. She shook her head and once again told me “Your people are weird”. I don’t think it’s all that weird. There’s a long tradition in Nordic cultures of bonfires by bodies of water; just because your pile of wood is goat-shaped should that stop you? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not in favor of goat arson. Not one bit. But I wonder how this recent Christmas tradition will evolve. How ridiculous is it that millions of people bring dead trees in their house and hang stuff all over them every year? Would the burning of say, a goat-shaped candle or a small wooden goat be any sillier? Any of you out there who have Christmas trees (and I’m someone who does), do you even know why you drag a major fire hazard into the middle of your home for a month every year? I’ll tell you: some German guy who later got elected to sainthood got pissed off at some pagans worshiping an oak tree so he cut down the oak and a fir tree sprung up immediately. Of course, the German saint guy interpreted this as an affirmation of Christianity instead of considering that maybe the pagan gods had said “Hey man, you can’t cut down that tree, we’ll show you, ZAP!” and then of course the paperwork got all fouled up in the shipping department and the wrong tree got sent from the Great Beyond to Our Mortal Coil.
What, that doesn’t sound rational either?
Well whatever traditions you observe this time of year, be they rational or irrational or if you don’t observe any tradition at all just remember: before you mock a flaming goat, consider the fire hazards in your own home.
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