After several safe Christmas seasons, world's favorite goat finds a new way to die
By Will Collette
I first started writing about Sweden's Gavle goat in 2011, the year Tom Ferrio and I launched Progressive Charlestown.A proud holiday tradition in the Swedish town of Gavle since 1966, local resident build a giant goat (Gävlebocken) made of straw that stands in the town square through the Advent season.
Except when it doesn't.
While a majority of town residents love the goat, a sizeable minority don't. They make it their business every year to burn the goat down. It does make a pretty spectacular bonfire. There's a lively betting pool on whether the goat will survive and, if so, how long. And as the saying goes, a certain amount of alcohol is involved.
Vandals caught in the act usually do three months of jail time. Metro.UK reports "of the 58 Gävle goats in history, 42 have been destroyed."
Each year I wrote about the Gävlebocken, usually in the context of publicizing Charlestown's own New Year's Eve bonfire. Some year's, the goat made it; other years, it didn't.
Due largely to dramatically heightened security, the Gävlebocken made it through the past several years uncharred.
But this year, its luck ran out.
Yesterday, December 27, the Gävlebocken was busted up by high winds from Atlantic Storm Johannes.
Hopefully, the weather will be kind on Wednesday night for Charlestown's annual New Year's Eve bonfire at Ninigret Park. Currently, the National Weather Service is forecasting a cold (20 degrees) and cloudy for Charlestown.Charlestown's bonfire was started as volunteer effort by Frank Glista who hustled up the lumber (usually from Arnold Lumber) and hand-crafted it himself. Frank carried on this work for years until recently handing it off to former Engineers union leader and current Charlestown Residents United chair Tim Quillen.
The Charlestown bonfire has had its own share of troubles. In 2013, an undisclosed complainant to DEM asked that the bonfire be banned because it created an illegal "municipal waste disposal site." DEM issued a "Notice of Intent to Enforce" which was promptly appealed by then Charlestown Treasurer Pat Anderson.
DEM rejected Pat's appeal and then former Charlestown state Representative Donna Walsh got to work, ultimately getting DEM to rescind its intended enforcement action.
There was a lot going on in Charlestown at that time. Bradford residents were hammering at DEM for its failure to enforce the law on the infamous Copar Quarry on the Charlestown-Westerly line. Town Councilor Deputy Dan Slattery was going on a tear about Ninigret Park, "phantom properties," state acquisition of properties to protect water resources after just completed his campaign to destroy former town administrator Bill DiLibero's career. Planning Commissar Ruth Platner was cranking up her effort to micromanage every business, residence and land parcel in town.
Banning the bonfire was someone's bright idea, someone who has never stepped forward to take the "credit." But if you study the history, you can make a pretty good guess.
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