Who Doneit?

Holy  Week is coming to an end. Easter Sunday will soon be here and news of the Resurrection  will reverberate around Christendom.

 In Norway, the word for Easter is Påske, a name derived from the Hebrew word "Pesach/Pasah" or Passover and many Norwegians choose Easter as one of their designated biannual visits to church.

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 Norway is not known for religious celebrations, but Påske is special! An Easter tradition unique to Norway is a trip to the mountains to enjoy the long lost sunshine.. Easter in Norway is all about the arrival of spring. Traditionally Norwegians would go to the tops of mountains to watch the sunrise and observe the weather as a sign of how the summer would be.The winter is long and dark, especially down in the Norwegian fjord homes where very little sunshine manages to wiggle through the surrounding mountains.

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Traditionally,  the chicken and egg are the symbols of Easter in Scandinavia. The egg symbolizes rebirth and the chicken has been a symbol of fertility since ancient times.

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Replacing the ever-present white of snow, yellow is the most traditional color of Norwegian Easter. Lush green is also popular as it symbolizes life and growth.  The rabbit has always been a symbol of fertility, like the chicken, while eggs used to be real chicken eggs Eggs piled up in farmhomes during the old Catholic times. (They were not to be eaten during Lent). However, this changed to chocolate eggs and  paper eggs filled with chocolate as time went on..

   Yellow candles are very popular and so are yellow flowers such as daffodils and tulips.

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 In Norway, the Eastertide starts a day before the end of the Lenten season, a day known as 'Vastelavent' or 'Schrovetide'. It is from this day that Norwegians start celebrating the upcoming festive occasion, the spring season and a new working year

Easter in Norway is a time of renewing.  Spring is in the air and the sun has returned. Life seems to creep into the landscape, homes are redecorated with bright colors and Norwegians enjoy the outdoors with snow activities.  This time of year marks the end of the long Winter.Palm Sunday, or Palmesondag was probably well attended in Norwegian kirks
as Norwegians remembered the celebration of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. No palms were waved, just birch branches and new birch tree twigs are brought into the houses.( there are no palm trees in Norway).  These twigs are for Easter decorations –homes are decorated with hanging ornaments, especially painted eggs.Easter Saturday is also called ‘Easter Eve’.  This is not a public holiday, the shops close early and there is little activity.  The day is normally celebrated with outdoor activities or quietly at home.The Church arranges Påskenattmesser, midnight mass, to welcome in Easter Sunday.

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 There is one very unusual Easter-time activity that is enjoyed by everyone. That activity is called Påskekrim:         

or..EasterCrime. Holy Thursday through Easter Monday is  'public holiday-time'  in Norway, but it's also a time when just about everyone in Norway reads crime novels. Bookstore displays are full of detective novels. Walt Disney’s Mickey

Mouse and Donald Duck are favored  reading material. Each year, nearly every TV and radio channel produces a crime series for Easter.  The milk company prints crime stories on their cartons.

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Follow the crime story!

In order to cash in on this national pastime, publishers print series of books known as "Easter Thrillers" and dates of publication are moved to Spring and released at this time.The sale of mysteries goes up 50% at this time. 
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Why does Norway choose Easter to delve into crime solving? According to one widely accepted theory, the tradition began in 1923 as the result of a marketing coup and the crime novel became one of the few forms of entertainment available during the Easter break. Cafes, restaurants and movie theaters were closed during Easter, There was no radio, and of course no television. Winter activity was limited to snow, and ancient household interiors were dark Besides whittling by the fire, everyone could read. As spring-light increased and warmer temperatures raised spirits,those books became carried on mountain-skiing hikes and books were read in the mountain sunshine. The Easter crime novel was born.

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 To understand the history behind Scandinavian Easter celebrations, we must consider history. When the First Nicean

Council in AD 325 established when Easter would be celebrated, Scandinavians were far removed from southern parts of Europe and the Holy Land. During the Roman Empire and early Middle Ages, they were still very much pagans, believing in Valhalla, Asgard and Norse gods Thor,and Odin. 

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  Most seasonal "holidays" were linked to the agricultural year — harvest and
sowing — and the Christian Easter was nothing the northerners paid much attention to. It did, after all, take Christianity almost 1,000 years to break into Scandinavia. Easter was one of those celebrations, when the  custom of welcoming spring  merged with the Christian celebration.

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 Nevertheless, the reason for the season remains..