The giant straw goat displayed in Gävle, Sweden, around New Year's Eve is the Gävle Goat.
The first Gävle Goat was erected in 1966 in Castle Square in the Swedish city of Gävle. It was created as a large version of the traditional Scandinavian Yule goat, a Christmas-season symbol whose origins are often linked to older winter customs and later Nordic holiday traditions.
The goat has become famous because vandals have repeatedly tried to burn or damage it. Protective measures, surveillance and legal penalties have varied over the decades, and some years the structure survives while others end with its destruction. Its fate is therefore not a fixed annual feature.
The Gävle Goat is associated with Christmas and New Year celebrations, but it is not a clock or countdown monument. Its straw construction and unusually large scale make it a distinct local landmark, separate from the smaller Yule-goat decorations found elsewhere in Scandinavia.