December 29th, 2025
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The Gävle Goat (Gävlebocken) succumbs in 2025 to a new menace

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Regular readers of this blog may remember the giant traditional Swedish Yule Goat erected annually in the Swedish town of Gävle. The Gävle Goat (Gävlebocken in Swedish) is a source of fascination for me because of its unfortunate habit of being burnt down by vandals.

In 2023, the Gävle Goat was eaten by jackdaws who feasted on the unusually high seed content in that year’s straw harvest. But fortunately, in 2024, the goat survived, bringing its survival rate for the 2020’s to 3/5. It looked like it was doing fairly well, at least by Gävle Goat standards.

Alas, in 2025, the goat succumbed again. But it wasn’t fire or birds that did in the goat. This time, it collapsed under the strong winds of storm Johannes, which also knocked out power to over 40,000 homes and felled trees across the country.

https://www.tumblr.com/taggsvansen/804096393455206400/the-goat-has-fallen

YouTube video of the goat’s collapse.

Local officials have not decided whether they will attempt to raise the goat back up.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
Non-Computer

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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