a giant straw Christmas goat… ON FIRE!

Have you ever heard of the giant straw Christmas goat? In some parts of the world, it’s a thing.

In Gävle [pronounced “yeah-vleh”], Sweden, they build a giant straw goat for Christmas every year. It’s big — at least 43′ high, up to 49′ some years, and it weighs 3 tons. I don’t know why they do this. One news article said the association of a straw goat with Christmas goes back centuries there, and now some residents don’t even know why. In some stories Christmas elves would ride the Yule goat door to door to deliver gifts to sleeping children. Another site associates this Yule goat with Thor, god of thunder, and sacred trees and fertility. Considering the modern take on Thor from The Avengers, it’s hard to see how a straw goat fits in. (Leave a comment if you can think of anything.)

Just a straw goat by itself is not so special (at least to people not familiar with the traditions), but there’s more to the story. There is a tradition that’s not supposed to be part of the tradition — burning the goat down. They have been building these giant ones since 1966, yet only 16 have survived past beyond Christmas day. I don’t know how the residents there feel about this, so no offense intended toward them, but the burning of it has happened before the internet existed, so it’s probably not just tourists wanting in on the action.

One year some people dressed up as Santa Claus and gingerbread men and they shot flaming arrows at the goat to burn it down. In 2010, someone attempted to bribe a guard so they could steal it with a helicopter, but their offer was rejected. (I’m against stealing, but it would be surreal to see it flying through the air.) One time someone ran into it with a car which made the legs collapse.

The staff here at Buffet o’ Blog have discussed the idea of building our own giant straw goat numerous times. It hasn’t happened yet, but here’s a highlight of a few of the ideas:

  • Have a big one-night festival with it, selling burgers, hot dogs, hot chocolate, memorabilia, etc. Have live bands playing music in exciting styles. Then for the big finale, set the goat on fire for a giant bonfire. Could roast marshmallows and make s’mores. Sell tickets or parking fees to raise money for charity.
  • Make the straw goat over 50 feet tall, to set a new Guinness World Record.
  • Fill the butt of the goat with fireworks and smoke bombs, activated by remote, to start the bonfire. Picture that! It would be a memorable evening for everyone there!
  • In a previous discussion, someone left a comment suggesting the belly of the goat be filled with fireworks and manure, so when the burning is almost done, it will be raining poop and everyone will know to go home. While it’s a creative idea, I am totally against this. That would certainly be memorable, but people would not come back the next year.
  • The idea of our own festival is not to mock the tradition. It would just be fun to have a party and burn a 50-foot straw goat.

If you want to read more of the original discussions years ago, it was here, originally, and more here.

If you have any ideas to make this idea even more random and/or awesome, leave a comment. And if you can think of any connection between Thor and straw goats, share that too.

Thanksgiving feast weight gain myth

I have an important Public Service Announcement that should be read by all before a Thanksgiving feast:

Eating one large meal will not make you fat.

Also, eating a piece of pecan pie or pumpkin pie that you normally would skip will not make you fat. Obesity is a big problem (ahem), but it’s a lifestyle, not the result of one meal. And research backs this up.

A study showed that during the holiday season including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, the average weight gain was 0.8 pounds. That’s within standard deviation — i.e., you can gain that much in a day just from normal eating. It’s not a big deal.

So my point is, enjoy your holiday feast with family. Of course, if your doctor gives you specific nutritional instructions, follow that. (This is not medical advice.) Or if you have personal convictions that you should follow, then do that. But don’t let guilt or shame or some overreaching news article keep you from enjoying a piece of pie. Eat, drink, and be merry!

Let me add to that — this isn’t about eating a lot. Actually enjoy the feast if you get to partake in one. And enjoy the people around you. It won’t all be perfect — life never is — but be thankful for what you have. And don’t let shame or guilt keep you from enjoying a feast with family. This day is unique — you won’t pass this way again.

invisible new posts

Greatest apologies for the lack of recent posts. It may seem like I’ve been away or neglecting the blog, but that is not the case at all. I’ve actually been right here! I’m still writing content, but just not finalizing it and publishing it. So it’s like there’s been an invisible barrier between us, where I’m writing but you cannot see me. I’m not actually invisible — just hidden behind some virtual barrier that doesn’t exist. (So here, virtual doesn’t mean being online or in the cyber realm, although it kinda is, but moreso means the essence of existing but not really existing. Does that make sense? Either way, there’s not an actual barrier, except it seems like there is. I suppose the “Publish” button is the demarcation between my world and the whole world.)

Rambling aside, here’s what happened. My last post here was about happiness and enjoying your life, which I’ve been thinking about and writing on lately. But this blog is not the ideal place for that. So it’ll be over at this page: How to find happiness, which will be updated as more related posts are added.

I’m tempted to give you a sneak peek of what’s to come, but then people searching for those things will find this random announcement and be disappointed. So just subscribe if you want an automated email when new stuff gets posted. (That’s all the emails you’ll get from me.) Regarding the upcoming posts, I’ll just say: “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” (Bonus points if you know which TV show character is famous for that line. Leave a comment if you know.)

a new holiday for enjoying life

So we just had a leap day from this leap year. I suppose they’re important, to keep the calendar synced up with the seasons. Without leap day, Christmas would eventually be in the summer. (Obviously I’m writing this from the northern hemisphere, where a summer Christmas is unheard of, yet it happens in the southern hemisphere.)

What did you do with your extra day on February 29? Probably nothing special, since the world treats it like a normal day. But what if there was a better way? Why can’t we have a bonus day off every four years?

Have you ever looked at the calendar we use and wondered why it is like it is and if it could be better? The story behind why the months have varied numbers of days is beyond the scope of this article (long story short, blame the Romans), but there are potential solutions to improve it. I could think of some ideas, but actually J.R.R. Tolkien (who wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) has already created a better calendar system. He created separate calendars for the Hobbits, Elves, Men, and Numenoreans (Aragorn’s ancestors), among others. (Yeah, that’s nerdy, but consider that he created new languages for different people groups.)

Worth noting for this discussion is the Hobbit calendar. It’s based on the same 365 days per year with an occasional leap year, just like ours. However, their calendar had 12 months with exactly 30 days each, which is convenient, although that leaves 5 or 6 days out. So what did Hobbits do about that? Here’s where it gets really interesting. The bonus days were split between “Lithedays” near the summer solstice and “Yuledays” near the winter solstice. These bonus days were holidays that were not included in the calendar — they simply stopped counting days during these celebrations. Actually, these days counted as days of the week, but not days on the calendar. They would have days of feasting during that time, so it was like a mandatory party or vacation (for them, since Hobbits usually didn’t leave the Shire). Also, there was a day, Midyear’s Day, which did not count as a day of the week, so their year officially had 364 days.

That might seem more complicated, but in some ways it is simpler. Their calendar made dates always fall on the same weekday. Bilbo’s and Frodo’s birthday of September 22 was always on a Thursday. The year always began on the first day of the week and ended on the last day of the week. This calendar was designed to reinforce their culture, prioritizing routine, order, and convenience, along with emphasizing their love of feasting and partying. They even had an area of town called Party Field for dancing and feasting.

Would it be worth the hassle to change our modern calendar? Probably not. People like routine and don’t like change, plus it would be really difficult to change. (Remember the hullabaloo about Y2K? This would be much more difficult to change.) And having mandatory days off sounds good, but given our culture, it probably wouldn’t work. It would result in days of no open restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals, police, etc. I’m not sure our American society could safely handle mandatory days off work. (That’s a discussion for another day.)

But what if towns and cities had a place where they would have dancing and feasting? Is that doable? It might get too complicated and crowded in big cities to pull off, logistically, but it seems like a good idea on a smaller scale. Ideally our culture would accept this idea and make it happen. Imagine a recurring time where people enjoy being around each other, eating together and dancing and just enjoying life. Actually, this sounds like the Sabbath in Christianity, where we’re supposed to devote the seventh day of each week to honoring God, which includes not working, with an emphasis on spending time enjoying God and His creation and people. Many Americans struggle with this, even though it is built into our calendar already.

I suppose the point of all this rambling is that it’s good to slow down from normal life on a regular basis so you can enjoy your life and the people around you. Here in America we are really blessed financially and with freedom — even though many people complain, we still have more prosperity and freedom than perhaps any other country. Of course the system could be better and the wealth distributed more fairly. But regardless of your situation, it is what it is, and where you are right now is your actual life, so make the best of it. Find time each day to laugh, to dance, to marvel at something amazing (like nature, or technology, or how the human body works, etc.), and to enjoy the people around you. If it’s hard to integrate this into your daily life, just start somewhere. Set aside some time today to enjoy life for yourself (that is, without it being fed to you via TV or social media or the internet). Maybe go for a walk, or visit with a friend, or read a book…

Try to enjoy today’s portion of your life’s journey. You won’t pass this way again.