A holiday tradition like no other: Giant Icelandic IKEA goat burns to the ground

By Patrick Hogan  |  October 26, 2015 | 8:58pm
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English language magazine The Iceland Review reports a giant straw goat erected as a Christmas decoration at the nation’s sole IKEA store burned to the ground Monday, meeting a similar fate as goats of previous years.

The Iceland straw goat is a tradition at the Garðabær, Iceland, IKEA store, imitating a similar goat erected yearly in Gävle, Sweden. That goat also has a tendency to burn down.

English language magazine The Reykjavík Grapevine reports the Icelandic goat was the target of arson by vandals in 2010 and 2012. It also succumbed to high winds in 2011 and 2013. So after a rare survival last year, it was pretty much due for destruction in 2015 somehow.


IKEA pulled out all the stops to protect this year’s goat, with the Grapevine reporting a 24-hour security watch with closed circuit cameras. An article in the Icelandic-language newspaper Vísir is translated by Google as bearing the headline “Security around the clock on the IKEA-goat.”

But all the security in Scandinavia could not save the goat from itself. The Review reports the goat’s self-combustion seems to be due to faulty Christmas lights.

“It appears to have committed suicide,” IKEA Iceland CEO Þórarinn Ævarsson said, according to The Review.

On Reddit’s Iceland board, meanwhile, commenters were celebrating the goat’s immolation.

“It’s not a proper Christmas until the fucking goat has been ignited,” one Redditor said, via a rough Google Translate.

You don’t have to understand Icelandic to understand those emoji.

 
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