Norwegian special occasions
SPECIAL OCCASIONS
The Norwegians were the last of the Teutonic tribes to set aside their
beliefs in Odin and Thor and the glorious afterlife in Valhalla, the
warrior's final reward. This was followed by almost 500 years of
Catholicism which in turn was suppressed in favor of Evangelical
Lutheranism. Although the Norwegians are almost 96 percent Lutherans and
devoutly celebrate Christmas, Easter, and confirmation at the age of
fifteen, they are not avid churchgoers, nor have they completely
relinquished their respect for the heavenly bodies (they celebrate
Midsummer's Eve in honor of solsnu, the turn of the sun). The
Christmas troll Julenisse has a definite place in Christmas
celebrations, and Easter is as much celebrated for its religious
connotation as for the fact that it marks the beginning of the annual
mountain trekking.
There is a growing difference between urban and rural dwellers in the way
everything from weddings to funerals is celebrated. Because most inhabited
areas are generally isolated from each other in the countryside, lengthy
and often difficult traveling conditions make it more practical for guests
or visitors to stay at least overnight. This necessitates extensive
cooking preparations and even the sharing of neighbors' accommodations. In
contrast, urban dwellers are less gregarious, emotionally colder and tend
to put forth less effort than the more traditionally minded country
people.
This situation is probably most evident in funerals. In the country, the
death of a villager will be mourned by the entire area with all flags at
half mast and everyone coming out to attend the services, gathering
afterwards to share sandwiches and coffee. In the city cremation is
popular and this together with the custom of hiring not only a preacher
but also professional hymn singers and even mourners makes for a brief,
rather dispassionate ceremony After a city funeral only the immediate
family gather quietly for gravmat (grave food) and gravol
(grave beer).
Similarly, many villages are not only retaining, but in many cases
reviving, age-old traditions for weddings. In the village of Voss,
Saturday is the day for weddings with a traditional wedding cake made of
towering layers of almond rings decorated with tiny Norwegian flags,
sugary flowers, miniature crackers all topped with a tiny bride and groom.
In Hardanger, a bridal outfit would be incomplete without a heirloom gold
or silver crown (if necessary rented from the village goldsmith).
Everywhere in rural areas, weddings are events of many days' duration,
often going through the night, with courses of coffee and sandwiches or
sometimes hearty soups and nibbles of cheeses and thinly sliced sausages
to periodically revive the merrymakers. City weddings are briefer,
increasingly becoming merely a one-day affair, but most still retaining
the traditional wedding cake.
Birthdays are special in Norway the most important being the fifteenth.
This is Confirmation Day and preparation is taken seriously with all the
candidates preparing themselves both in knowledge of the Church as well as
in new clothes. The confirmation service is announced with special
imitations; the candidates appear at the service in long white gowns
covering their new clothes as they nervously answer questions on their
teaching before a hushed audience. The tenseness of the services is broken
with lavish gifts, flower-decked tables, and hours of singing, eating (an
enlarged frokost), and drinking.
While confirmation is an undeniable highlight on the birthday register, so
is the fortieth, fiftieth, and sixtieth. In fact, these special birthdays
are celebrated with beautiful gifts, flowers, and special cakes. At the
age of seventy the occasion is considered so important that photos of
septuagenarians appear regularly in local papers, and women who reach a
hundred are sent a special birthday cake by a Norwegian women's magazine.
From noon on Christmas Eve, Norwegian shops close, and exactly at 5:00
p.m. church bells throughout the country herald the holiday. But weeks
before, the hustle of holiday baking, slaughtering of animals and curing
of meats and the preparation of lutefisk as well as the sending of
typical Norwegian Christmas cards - a jolly picture of Julenisse
gobbling his plate of rommegrot - leave little doubt of the coming
occasion. In western areas of Norway, the Viking tradition of serving
dried salted lamb at this time is still enjoyed, while in most of the
eastern areas traditional roast pork together with lutefisk and a
delectable display of fruits, nuts, and bakery highlight the Christmas
menu.
While there may be a difference in menu, other traditions are uniform
throughout the country. Everywhere animals are given a special treat on
Christmas eve in the belief that they shared in the holy event in the
stable on the special eve; Norwegian cows get a special treat of salted
herring. After the Christmas Eve dinner, carols are sung around the
Christmas tree which is aglow with white candles or white lights. Then the
exchanging of gifts ends the evening. Christmas Day is a quiet family day.
The rounds of parties begin the following day.
Julebord is the special name given to the groaning table of
Christmas delicacies whether at home or in a restaurant. Traditionally the
display includes the finest specialties of the country: whole poached cod,
whole smoked salmon, glazed roasted duck, and roasted pork stuffed with
prunes and apples. By January, Oslo has only eight hours of daylight, but
the Julebord and the white lights of Christmas as well as the
parties and shoal make all oblivious to the outside gloom.
Lent and Easter are observed more casually. Easter Sunday services are
followed by a hearty but brief dinner, for traditionally this is the day
the mountain climbing begins.
Baptisms and birthdays, Christmas and Easter all compete on the festive
calendar with ancient holidays closely related with the changing seasons,
seasonal activities, and the enjoyment of fresh seasonal foods. The
threads of paganism and even superstition that persist into the culture of
the modern-day Norwegian, and indeed that of most Scandinavians, seem to
he no more contradictory than their delight in parties and their craving
for solitude.