July 10, 1869

Posted on July 10, 2020 by Joel Byers

On July 10, 1869, the city of Gavle, Sweden was largely destroyed in a fire. Around 8,000 of it’s 10,000 inhabitants were left homeless. In a bit of karmic poetry, the city of Gavle, in 1966, decided to erect a giant traditional Swedish Yule Goat. It was 43 feet tall, weighed 7-tons and was made out of straw and lumber. It was immediately burned down by drunken vandals. This has become a traditional. Over the next 54 years, the giant Gavle Goat has been burned down thirty times. The Gavle authorities do their best to protect it and have been successful seventeen times, but the citizens of Gavle seem to have fire (or just mayhem) on the brain. Maybe arson was burned into the citizens on July 10, 1869, or, just maybe, maybe, Gavle is so far north, that in the wintertime, the only things a body can do is drink aquavit and get in trouble.

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About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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