Time Marches On!

Summer Time begins in Europe March 29th.

Summer Time  begins in Europe? We, here in the USA are looking forward to spring! How can this be?!

Looking a bit deeper, there’s more to the story. Summertime DOES begin in Europe March 29th, but this “Summertime” doesn’t have anything to do with the weather. It simply is the arrangement by which clocks are advanced by one hour in spring and move back in autumn to make the most of seasonal daylight.

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Sound familiar? Many of us spent an exhaustive evening Saturday, March 7th searching for, and adjusting every battery operated, electric and digital clock  in our houses, cars, and smart wristwatches. All had to be adjusted in  the annual ritual to stay on time, while losing an hour of rest! We call it  “Daylight Savings Time” .   Personally, I like “Summer Time” better!

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Why do we do this?

Benjamin Franklin proposed the idea of 'DST' in 1784. He discussed the cost of oil for lamps as well as working while it was dark ,and sleeping while it was day.

Today, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is used to save energy and make better use of daylight. The idea had been suggested in ancient times and later by famous scientists. Ancient civilizations are known to have engaged in a practice similar to modern DST where they would adjust their daily schedules to the sun's schedule.

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 A major contributor to the invention of DST was New Zealand’s entomologist George Vernon Hudson. In 1895, Hudson presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society, proposing a two-hour shift forward in October and a two-hour shift back in March. Although there was interest in the 'two-hour' idea, it was never followed through.The rationale was to minimize the use of artificial lighting in order to save fuel for the war effort during World War I.

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In the U.S., Daylight Saving Time – or “fast time” as it was called then – was first introduced in 1918 when President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law to support the war effort during World War I. Year-round DST, then called “War Time” was in force during World War II, from February 9, 1942 to September , 1945. The change was implemented after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and during this time, the U.S. time zones were called “Eastern War Time”, “Central War Time”, and “Pacific War Time”.
After the surrender of Japan in mid-August 1945, the time zones were relabeled “Peace Time”.

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                                         Arizona doesn’t take part in this ritual.
Many people in Arizona including many businesses, farming communities and people with children, prefer to remain on “Mountain Standard” or MST throughout the year because daylight saving produced no personal benefits for them. They had tried it for one year in the 1960s, but there was so much negative reaction that they never tried it again. Most people believed that a daylight saving schedule was not necessary for Arizona's hot climate.

The rest of us learned to adjust!

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At any rate, it’s a sign of warmer days ahead with opportunities to visit the many places highlighted in catalogs and pamphlets arriving in our daily mail. Maybe we do need more time  for The Annual Vacation! Many vacationers visit European centers, returning with photographs of the usual tourist attractions. This year, there are some unusual European locations that have earned national recognition that are attracting attention.

If you are planning on visiting Norway, all tours will include the most famous attractions and shouldn't be missed.. IF.. you have the time. However, consider something different!  Of course, one should not miss Bergen, always a fine introduction to 'ole-time Norway'.

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Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen, is a reminder of the town’s importance as a place of trading  from the 14th to the mid-16th century.

Many fires have ravaged the characteristic wooden houses of Bryggen, however, rebuilding has traditionally followed old patterns and methods, thus leaving its main structure preserved, which is an ancient wooden urban structure once common in Northern Europe. Today, some 62 buildings remain of this former townscape.

Then, catch a ride on the hurtigruten north to a  village known for a church.

Gammelstad, at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, is the best-preserved example of a 'church village', a unique kind of village formerly found throughout northern Scandinavia. The  wooden houses, huddled round the early 15th-century stone church, were used only on Sundays and at religious festivals to house worshippers from the surrounding countryside who could not return home the same day because of the distance and difficult traveling conditions. Luleå Gammelstad is a excellent example of the traditional church town of northern Scandinavia. The river and its valley have provided a route between the Gulf of Bothnia , the mountains of Lapland, and the coast of northern Norway from earliest times.The settlement became the meeting place for three groups - merchants, local farmers, and the Saamis of the hinterland The church town consists of 424 buildings, divided into 555 separate rooms. All are built from wood, painted red and with doors and window frames highlighted in white. The church is the largest of its type in northern Scandinavia and recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage Site. A UNESCO site is a place (such as a forest, mountain, lake, island, building, complex, or city) that is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as of special cultural or physical significance.

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Everyone is aware of runes, but rock art in Norway?

Scandinavian rock art comprise two categories. The first type dates to the Stone Age (in Norway from between 8000-1800 BC), and usually depicts mammals, as well as examples of boats, humans and various geometrical figures. These rock carvings were probably made by people who used gathering, fishing and hunting as their subsistence. This type of rock art is commonly known as

veideristninger (hunter's rock carvings). Due to the wear of weather exposure and  human destruction, most of the rock-art sites in Central Norway, and  Scandinavia as a whole are not meant to be visited by the public. There are no signsand no maintenance is done on the sites to keep vegetation from covering the carvings, etc. There are, however, a small number of sites open to the public. These have signs with information, the carvings are usually painted to make them more visible, and there are parking spaces. (Painting the carvings red has caused some concern!).

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 If you REALLY want to visit something unusual, check THIS one out.
As long as you're up north,  take in a village in Nord-Trøndelag, located next to Trondheim airport in the Stjørdal municipality. While there's very little to see there, except for an annual blues festival in September, it's always fun to get a picture of yourself outside "Gods Expedition " (a freight forwarding office).
The story goes that a tourist asked a Norse man where to go. With a smile, the man told them to go to ....
Hellir.

This village has become a minor tourist attraction because of its name, as visitors often have their photograph taken in front of the station sign. A smaller building on the railway station has been given the sign Gods expedition, which is the archaic spelling of the word for "cargo handling". (Godsekspedisjon would be the spelling in contemporary. It has a more used homonym in modern Norwegian that means "luck". The Old Norse word Hel is the same as today's English Hell, and as a proper noun, Hel was the ruler of Hel. In modern Norwegian the word for hell is helvete.The name Hell stems from the Old Norse word hellir, which means "overhang" or "cliff cave".

Hell is a village of about 1,400 inhabitants  located next to  the Trondheim  airport. Hell has a train station where local trains from Trondheim, the airport, and Steinkjer stop. There are one or two departures per hour and trains from Sweden (twice per day) that stop in Hell. If you want to take the train, be aware that the train will only stop if they see someone standing at the platform, otherwise it will pass.

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Boarding the hurtigruten for the journey south, you might pass a very famous church located on the southwestern Norwegian coast. 

Urnes stavkirke

The wooden church of Urnes ,(the stavkirke), stands in the natural setting of Sogn og Fjordane. It was built in the 12th and 13th centuries and is an outstanding example of traditional Scandinavian wooden architecture. It brings together traces of Celtic art, Viking traditions

The church was built around 1130 or shortly thereafter, and still stands in its original location; believed to be the oldest of its kind, it

provides a link between Christian architecture and  artforms of the Viking Age with typical animal-ornamentation, the so-called "Urnes style" of animal-art.

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Archaeological investigations have discovered the remains of three churches on the site prior to the current building. The excavations uncovered holes in the ground from earth-bound posts which had belonged to an early post church, with walls supported by short sills inserted between free-standing posts.It is now owned by Fortidsminneforeningen (Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments) . In 1979, the Urnes Stave Church was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The village is located on a small peninsula that juts out into the Lustrafjorden, the innermost part of the Sognefjorden and sits on the east side of the fjord, directly across from the village of  Solvorn. You may enjoy the ferryride, a regular ferry route from Ornes to Solvorn, across the fjord.

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Back in Bergen and preparing for a return journey to  America, take a quick side-trip back to Bergen's free fish market  and  see local sights and sounds at no cost. Enjoy a stroll around the market while looking at crafts and flowers, fresh farm goods and seafood. The free Fisketorget  fish market in Bergen is open in June, July and August daily from 7 am - 7 pm, with limited  open times from September to May .

You will be able to tell everyone that you took the "UNESCO" tour!

So much to see,  so little time!

Maybe we need another hour, after all..

What's In a Name?

  We have had an interesting winter. Drought in the West, Freezing rain in the South, and piles of snow in the Northwest. We've even become acquainted with some new names like

Ole??

Many of our news-worthy events are labeled with a name. Newly discovered planets and comets earn historic names such as Hayley, Saturn, Mars,etc. Winter events are alphabetically named and this winter has created several events with well-known names as well as some unprintable ones. Unusual conditions have found our Western areas warmer than usual, while the Central states seem to be colder than normal. Lately, the Eastern seaboard and northwest states are now experiencing an unbelievable string of storms.
Weather forecasters watched the developement of a series of weather fronts moving through the US ,recently. When two opposing forces meet, there is often a serious reaction.

Octavia? Ole?? Things are becoming weird!

Winter storms usually form when an air mass of cold, dry, Canadian air moves south and interacts with a warm, moist air mass moving north from the Gulf of Mexico. The point where these two air masses meet is called a front. If cold air advances and pushes away the warm air, it forms a cold front. Winter storms develop when low pressure systems come into contact with a cold front or a warm front,resulting in snow and freezing rain. Residents were told to be ready for a winter storm named "Juno". 

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Juno

The name Juno is from Roman mythology, a goddess who looked after the women of Rome. This time, serving both sexes equally. Monday, January 26, the Northeast braced for "Winter Storm Juno", which threatened to become a major snowstorm with potentially historic blizzard conditions. Juno was a record snowstorm for Worcester, 31.9 inches fell in Worcester on Jan. 27, alone! And that was only the beginning!

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Only a week later, another "front" became a threat and was named "Marcus", the ancient Roman Emperor and Greek god Mars, the god of fertility war, and spring! Storm number 2 began February 9th and was expected to be a slow mover, and the snow began to pile up with an additional 20 inches of snow before it let the area.

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Neptune

Not to rest long, three days later, on February 14th, Valentine’s Day, another northeastern winter storm was quickly in weather news. This time," Neptune", the Greek god of freshwater and the sea roared into town with blizzard warnings in eight states; heavy snow, high winds, and brutal wind chills started it out with an additional snowfall rates of two to three inches per hour .The city decided to borrow snow melting machinery from New York City while dumping snow in vacant parking lots, now called "snow farms". The 'storm of the week'. Happy Valentine's Day!

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Octavia

However, Mother Nature was not finished. Weather watchers reported another problem! A region of freezing rain, sleet and dangerous conditions coming from the south. Arriving in the upper northwest February 15th, snowmovers had to find room for the additional snow of Octavia. 

 "Octavia " was the sister of the first Roman Emperor and known for feminine virtue and humanity. This time, it was for a snowfall of an additional twenty inches of   snow, totaling an estimated eight feet of snow on the ground, numerous icy accidents and winter problems , with still another week to go in February. February will be long-remembered in New England as a major snow month. Eight feet of snow in less than a month!
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We usually think that our Scandinavian friends are accustomed to snow on the ground for many months. Therefore, winter storms must be  normal happenings and our current weather patterns would be nothing unusual 'overseas'. Things do seem to be more calm in Norway's weather this winter. However, their year began,  weather-wise early, as weather reports of the first weather storm of 2015 in Norway took shape under  the name of "Nina". Nina has an interesting story. She was the ancient goddess of health, healing and helping civilization!  What happened??

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Nina

Extreme winter storm ‘Nina’  hit the west coast of Norway on January 11, with wind speed of 166 kmph. The hurricane strength winds left over 73,000 household without power, uprooting trees, tearing up infrastructures . A  reporter noted : "Never before has it been measured so much, so early in the year." According to several weather reports, this winter storm had been strongest in last 20 years. Snow-covered cabins are in danger of  roofs collapsing . Weather advisors are offering advice based on years of construction. Older cabins are vulnerable,"Cabins built after 1980 varies as to how they are designed. In practice, one should shovel the roof when snow depth begins to approach 1 meter (39 inches)." Apparently, rooftop snow depth under 3 feet is not really a problem in Norway!

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Following this hurricane-force storm, TV listeners were informed that still another weather pattern was soon to arrive! However, "this one would not be as severe". This one would be called "Ole". Ole

 doesn't have any mythical background. Everyone knows Ole. But this one was no joke!

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Washed out bridge

Ole arrived February 7th , virtually dividing Norway in two when the major Highway E6 was closed at Namskogan in Nord-Trøndelag county. The road surface on a key bridge had been washed away. E6 is the only road between Southern and Northern Norway, and there was no possibility for a detour, according to NRK reports. The only possibility would be to drive via Sweden!

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There were numerous reports of damage caused by the storm that hit.  in Lofoten, a number of households were without electricity. It took take days to restore the damaged grid, as several blocked roads made it difficult for the repair crews to reach the damage spots. Hurricane-force winds caused waves of  twenty-five meters in height that destroyed shoreline buildings and fisheries.  Ole turned out to be a major storm.

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During discussion about winter storms,one listener inquired as to why all storms  had a name. The answer: "It's simply easier to communicate about a complex storm if it has a name" said Bryan Norcross, senior hurricane specialist at The Weather Channel and compiler of the name list.   "Good communications benefits everyone."

There will be many people rejoicing at the arrival of spring, however, the huge piles of snow will be melting and  floods and sandbags will again be in the news!  All that melted water will have to go somewhere.

 Another well-known name : "Mother Nature"

  and she's  tricky!



Women in Time

Look at this!

Anyone walking our local city sidewalks can expect to see pedestrians wearing a wide variety of clothing. However, seeing someone  clothed in this fashion might be considered out of the ordinary.

In Arabian nations, this would be very commonplace and often required.  Women are covered from the top of their head to their feet in a black costume called a 'Burqa'. This costume has , in the strictest interpretation of some Muslim males, been required to be worn in public.

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'Burqa' is an Arabized Persian word meaning 'curtain and veil'. The Quran ,the  Muslim Holy Book, has no requirement that women cover their faces with a veil, or cover their bodies with the full-body burqa. Many Muslims believe that the  tradition goes back to the days of the Prophet  Muhammed,  requiring both men and women to dress and behave modestly in public. However, this requirement has been interpreted in many different ways. The Quran has been translated to instruct women:
"not  to display their beauty  except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons," ....and others in the family relationship.
This is considered  a virtue in a Middle Eastern Muslim patriarchal society, a strongly gender-specific  relations within a family stressing honor, attention, respect/respectability, and modesty. Young, unmarried women or young, married women in their first years of marriage are required to wear the burqa. However,  the husband usually decides if his wife should continue to wear a burqa. The body-covering is necessary because a

Muslim man who sees a woman's body parts can be  aroused, and this might cause him to commit sin. Islamic State in Iraq and Syria  compels people in the areas that it controls to declare Islamic creed and live according to its interpretation of Sunni Islam and sharia law. ISIL warned women in the city of Mosul to wear full-face veils or face severe punishment. One rule stipulated that women should stay at home and not go outside unless necessary.

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17 yr old Malala Yousafzai  is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate.She is known mainly for human rights advocacy for education and for women in her native Swat Valley in  northwest Pakistan  where the local Taliban has banned girls from attending school. One October afternoon in 2012, Yousafzai boarded her school bus in the northwest Pakistani district of Swat. A gunman asked for her by name, then pointed a pistol at her and fired three shots. The assassination attempt sparked a national and international outpouring of support for Yousafzai.Taliban had set an edict that no girls could attend school after 15 January 2009. In these countries, girls and women in general are forbidden to be educated, and  strictly regulated in their daily activities. Those wishing to participate in any Western country culture activity and not adherring to current laws are severely punished.

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Different countries have different attitudes pertaining to the ‘Fairer Sex’. 

Women in  America  campaigned for their right to vote for several decades until the legal right of women to vote  was established   nationally in 1920.  The slogan of " All men are created equal"  omits the American women as they strive for 'equal pay; for doing the same work.

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Considering  this 'male superiority' status, one might wonder how the woman's life must have been in the Viking age of  uneducated and seemingly vicious nature of the raiding and plundering Vikings.

 Women in the Viking age were considered property and plunder when at war and carried off as slaves.

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Due to a lack of education and no written language, 'word of mouth'  stories past down through generations of Vikings and later Scandinavian excavations have revealed that the roles of men and women in Norse society to be quite distinct and male dominated. Each gender had a set of expected behaviors, and that line could not be crossed. Women did not participate in trading or raiding parties (although they clearly participated in journeys of exploration and settlement to places such as Iceland and Vínland).

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Women’s responsibilites were clearly defined to be domestic. Members of either sex who crossed the gender line were, at very least,
not    approved by society and often strictly prohibited by law. The medieval Icelandic lawbook Grágás prohibited women from wearing men’s clothes, from cutting their hair short, or from carrying weapons. She was prohibited from participating in most political or governmental activities On the other hand, women were respected in Norse society and had great freedom. In most sagas, the heroes are men and probably were written by men. Women tend to play only minor roles, but those roles are varied. In real life, the female characters were strong.The women seemed  much harder than the men, even more eager to protect the family’s honor. It was considered shameful  to harm a woman, and examples in the sagas of such violence are rare.

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In one of these sagas , Gunnar, in a fit of rage, slapped his wife Hallgerur in the face when he discovered his wife had stolen food from a nearby farm during a famine. (Theft was highly unacceptable in Norse society.) Hallgerur said she would remember that slap and pay him back. Some years later, in this story, Gunnar was attacked in his home by a gang seeking revenge. He kept the attack party at bay with a shower of arrows from his bow. When his bow string was cut by one of the attackers, he asked his wife,Hallger for two locks of her hair in order to make a new one.

“Does anything depend on it?” she asked.”My life,” replied Gunnar.

”Then I remind you of the slap you once gave me,” and she refused to give him the hair.

Gunnar was eventually overcome by the attackers and killed.

Women were excluded from these kinds of attacks on a household. It was a grave dishonor for a man to injure a woman, even accidentally, in an attack on a household. And if, for instance, a house were going to be burned to kill the occupants, women and children were allowed to leave without injury.

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In another Norse saga, a vengeful warrior named Eyjólfur and his men attacked Gísli in overwhelming numbers, Gísli’s wife Auur stood by his side, armed with a club. In the first rush, Gísli killed the chief attacker  while Auur struck Eyjólfur so hard with her club that he staggered back down the hill. Soon after, Eyjólfur returned and killed Gísli .

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 Later in the saga, Eyjólfur visited Börkur and his wife. The woman of the house happened to be Gisli’s sister, Ordís, and she did not  want to offer hospitality to her brother’s killer, but her husband insisted. During the meal, Ordís recognized Gísli’s sword lying on the floor by the killer’s feet. She dropped a tray of spoons, and after bending down to pick them up, she grabbed the sword and thrust up at Eyjólfur from below, inflicting a fatal wound. Due to her husband's action, she divorced him on the spot. Viking women had some rights and were granted great respect from the viking men.

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Women’s roles vary from country to country. Ancient accounts have evolved into actions never intended by the earlier authors. Our news is filled with unbelievable horrors as vindictive leaders have twisted these basic beliefs into new laws, killing their enemies and violently preventing the education of their women and female children.

  Equality for all has been difficult to achieve.

Here We Go, Again!

The Christmas tree is out and most of those  tree needles that remain stuck deeply into the carpet are being removed one by one. Things are coming back to normal, or is it?

The TV weatherman is showing the latest weather forecast and it looks like very familiar. 

It seems to be the same one shown at this time--last year! 

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There’s a big bulge from the north with warnings of bitter cold winds and below normal temperatures.Here we go again! Another ‘Polar Vortex’! National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Kocin, an expert on winter storms, said “This is a classic pattern of massive blasts of Arctic air hitting just about everyone east of the Rockies”. He said “It will rival last year’s January Arctic outbreak that  introduced the phrase ‘polar vortex’ to America”.   This ‘vortex’ is a weather pattern made up of strong winds circulating around a low-pressure system. It usually stays up north, keeping the cold confined, but, lately, it strays away from its normal winter position over the Arctic because of a weakening jet stream, a belt of fast westerly winds that normally act as a boundary between cold northern air and warmer southern air. Global warming? Northern sea-ice is melting. Scientific reports are claiming the lack of sea ice strips the

Arctic ocean of the ice's insulating properties causing more heat to move from the water to the air. This, in turn, affects  air pressure in the Arctic and changes the air movement around the region.This causes that  polar vortex to weaken and the cold air can then spill southerly into our area. Remembering last year, California and Arizona in 2014 recorded their warmest years on record, while the midwest set low temperature records. Buffalo has already seen monstrous snowfall totals. Will 2015 be a repeat??

3 PM in the afternoon

If we are experiencing subnormal weather conditions, one would expect our overseas friends to be expecting the same treatment.

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Since November, Northern Norway is  'in the dark'

The sun not rising is the real definition of mørketiden, the Murky time!  

Above the Arctic Circle  the winter sun doesn’t even rise, and residents of Tromsø, Alta, etc . have to make do with an eery (yet beautiful, they say) purple polar night twilight for several weeks. A good reason to stay in bed,  but doctors say “ too much sleep will make you tired.” However, Scandinavians seem to enjoy their winters. News  from overseas doesn’t reflect this 'Polar thing', except that while cold air was allowed to spill into the US and Canada last January, more humid temperatures came to much of Europe. This, added to an already warmer than average winter, led to increased rainfall in countries including Norway and Finland.  Oslo’s temperatures are rather moderate for a city located as far north as it is. The average low winter temperature in Oslo is only about minus 4 degrees Celsius (around 23 

° Fahrenheit), which is a bit warmer than the winter temperatures of most American and European cities. Large parts of Norway had up to three times as much rain as normal, last January .This unusual warming situation  caused hibernating bears to wake up early in Finland, while plants   such as daffodils emerged as early as December 14th  in Norway. The Olso forecast for January 8-10, 2014 was ‘Breezy! Morning rain, cloudy’.  Wisconsin's forecast for January 8-10, 2015 currently reads ‘Bitter cold, 2 or more inches of snow expected, with wind chills of 15-30 degrees below.’ 

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A Wisconsin TV commercial asks viewers “ Why do people wish to live in Wisconsin in the wintertime? It must be the weather!”

It's Over...Again!

" Hope you had a good Christmas? What did you get?"

Christmas is over. Once again, we have memories of family gatherings, happy faces, gifts given and received

 and now,family visitors who have left for their homes.

Time to get the vacuum cleaner out, take off all those ornaments and put away the artificial tree . It’s over, again. Stores and shops have been enjoying their seasonal upsurge in business and now it’s time to check the ‘bottom line’. It’s a great time of the year!

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The secular sideshow of modern Christmas represents a time of joy, gift-giving. Early history credits the first gift-giving and travel to that of the three wise-men visiting the new-born baby Jesus.
Christmas in the Christian tradition honors the birth of Christ – though the commercial side outshouts the sacred in our modern society. History accounts of ‘Christmas’, as we know it, evolved out of the Roman tradition of Saturnalia, a festival honoring their god of agriculture, Saturn, on the winter solstice. Currently, the commercial side of the holiday season heavily outweighs the sacred meaning of Christmas.

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Many of our traditional practices of Christmas have evolved from the past. December is cold, damp with long, dark nights.Christmas in Scandinavia is an antidote to darkness, a way to break winter's hold. From lighting the candles during Advent to following the ritual of burning the Yule Log, Scandinavian Christmas traditions are the highlight of the festive season.

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Advent, for Christians everywhere opens the joyful activities. A candle is lit in each of the four Sundays in prepare for the anticipated event celebrated in US churches.

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 December 6th is an important date for today’s children. Saint Nicolas has been known to bring rewards to the young.

A fourth century bishop named Nicolas was concerned with the people living in poverty in his area.

He gave what he could in homemade food, clothes, and furniture. The bishop even gave out oranges, which would have been very rare and expensive in Lycia, where he lived. The problem: ‘Where to leave these gifts so that the children would find them?’..Everyone would go the early-morning fireplace to get warm! Many people believe Saint Nicholas was the basis of Santa Claus, but the practice of stocking-stuffing can be traced back to his charitable donations in the 4th century. Nicholas believed that childhood should be savored and enjoyed – but in a time where boys and girls younger than 10 had to work to support their families, this wasn’t always possible.

　

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A Famous Swedish saint coincides with the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year before calendar reforms, so her feast day has

become a festival of light. Lussinatta, the Lussi Night, was marked in Sweden, December 13 . According to the traditional story, Lucia was born of rich and noble parents around the year 283. It is believed that a Sicilian Saint called Lucia was killed for her Christian faith in 304 AD.

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Scandinavia is known to be the birthplace of Yuletide traditions. The dark, cold winters inspired the development of these customs that would go on to become one of the most important traditions in Christmas around the world.

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Since Scandinavia experiences little natural light for a large amount of the year, the sun has become extremely important to the Scandinavian people. In ancient times, it was believed that the gods controlled the return of the sun and if they were not  worshipped properly , the sun would not return. Because of these superstitions, many Scandinavian holidays, such as Midsummer,Santa Lucia Day, and Christmas, revolve around  the celebration of the sun and light.
   

The high point of the Scandinavian season is not Christmas Day, but Christmas Eve. This part of Scandinavian Christmas traditions  may also have to do with darkness. Coming to dinner through streets wrapped in darkness, having the door of welcome opened and yellow light suddenly streaming out into the dark  must create a warm and friendly atmosphere.

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  Not Santa, but the' Julenisse' puts presents under the Christmas tree at night. According to customs, children leave a bowl of porridge outside for the gnome, in the hope that the gnome gets impressed and leaves presents. At times , the Julenissen can be seen in a small sleigh pulled by a goat!

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In Scandinavia, a small gnome called 'Straw Goats', also known as the'Yule Goat' are

probably the most famous Scandinavian Christmas characters. Typically made out of straw,  these goats are associated with the custom of 'wassailing', sometimes referred to as 'going Yule Goat' in Scandinavia. This can be traced back to sagas recalling two goats pulling the wagon of Thor, the powerful mystic-being who made thunder and lightning by throwing his hammer in the sky. The straw comes from the last bundle of grain harvested earlier to honor a successful harvest season.

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Possible, we may be able to 'spice up' our caroling fun next year! Between Christmas and New  Year’s Day, Scandinavians don masks and costumes and go door to door. Neighbors receiving them attempt to identify who is at their door because the visitors  often disguise their voices and body language to further the masquerade. Offering the visiting people holiday treats and something to drink is customary. Once identities are known and the food is eaten, the Julebukkers,  continue to the next home. This custom has been borrowed and enjoyed by American youth in our Halloween Eve every year.

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The Yule season remains a time for feasting, drinking, gift-giving, and gatherings, but, in the past, it was also  the season of awareness and fear of the forces of the dark.

-In the words of Thor Heyerdahl -

"We use our holidays to celebrate the sun. We celebrate the arrival of the sun, the summer

solstice, we journey to the mountains in search of the sun, and on the days we miss it the

most, because it is farthest away, we cheer ourselves with a grand Christmas fest".
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Now that the Christmas festivities have ended ,  we  expect a long winter. But first, we take some time to reflect on the 'Old Year' , and make our plans for the days yet to come!  Hopefully, an even better year  ahead.

Happy New Year!

Christmas, Long Ago

 

 In ancient times, long before Christianity came to Scandinavia, “Jul” or “Yule” was an observation of the winter solstice. It was a mid-winter celebration of the transition from the dark winter to spring and the time to celebrate harvest, fertility and birth. December is the darkest month of the year but it is also when the days start to get longer again. In “The Early Days”,      

    

 Jul was  a pagan tradition that, in time,slowly converted into a Christian custom , the last week of December,celebrating the birth of Jesus.

And today...

 

In Sweden, youngsters had  their stockings hung at the end of their bed before the morning of the 24th,  Christmas Eve. Following the discovery of the stockings contents, joyous activities were enjoyed   until about 3 pm. At this time, much of Sweden gathered their families, of all things, to watch  cartoons! This was the time when a viewing of Donald Duck and his Friends officially kicked off the Christmas festivities.

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Every year on Dec. 24 at 3 p.m., half of Sweden sits down in front of the television for a family viewing of the 1958 Walt Disney Presents Christmas special, "From All of Us to All of You." Or as it is known in Sverige (Swedish),' Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul:' ( Donald Duck and his friends extend their Christmas wishes).

Kalle Anka (pronounced kah-lay ahn-kah) gets its name from the star of the show's animated short, a 1944 cartoon called "Clown of the Jungle," in which Donald Duck is tormented by a demented Aracuan Bird during a luckless ornithological expedition.
The show's cultural significance is VERY important! There is no taping or DVR Kalle Anka for later viewing, and   no eating or dinner preparation is allowed while watching Kalle Anka. Every member of the family is expected to sit quietly together and watch a program that generations of Swedes have been watching for fifty years. Most families plan their entire Christmas around Kalle Anka, from the Smörgåsbord at lunch to the post-Kalle visit from Jultomten. It has been said that "At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, you can't to do anything else, because Sweden is closed." Each time the network has attempted to cancel or alter the show, public complaints have been swift and fierce.

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After the show, the tree that has been decorated with strings of the country flag, or white lights that resemble  the  bonfires that lit
the  dark  winter nights might be the center of family activity. Everyone joins hands and they circle the tree while singing  “Nu är det jul igen, nu är det jul igen!”and other favorites until everyone stops singing and starts walking towards the table. It’s time for the Christmas smorgasbord.

The traditional Scandinavian kitchen offers a wide variety of cold and warm traditional Christmas dishes. The cuisine varies slightly between the three countries  It is expected that you should go around seven times to get food at a proper smorgasbord ,because of the wide range of cold and hot food, fish, meat and desserts that is served. Some of the fish dishes that might be included are herring & lutefisk. The herring is pickled and comes in many variations, tasting of garlic, tomato or mustard. Other dishes include lutefisk, as well as meatballs, ham, duck, sausages and rice pudding. And of course there is an abundance of salads and garnish to go with it.

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Soon, there’s a knock on the door and Swedish youngsters happily allow the jultomten to join the festivities. In Norway, he’s the
 julenissen, in Denmark, he’s known as the julemanden. He’s believed to be a cross between the garden gnome and the Greek Saint Nichlas whose generosity became the inspiration for today’s American Santa Claus. Julenisse is a kind of cross between Father Christmas and a nisse. The most characteristic features of Norway's answer to Santa Claus are his red stocking cap and long white beard. The Julenisse wears knee breeches, hand-knitted stockings, a Norwegian sweater and a homespun jacket. On top he wears a heavy fur coat — it can get cold in Norway in the winter.

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Exactly where he lives is also disputed. Some say the North Pole is his real home, but in Scandinavia it is almost common knowledge that he lives in Rovaniemi, Finland, or if you ask a Dane, they might say he is from Greenland.
Santa (the Jultomte) delivers his presents in person and never flying through the air on a sleigh pulled by magical reindeer but sometimes on a sled pulled by a goat.

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  December 25th finds churchgoers enjoying a Christmas service and a quiet day with their

family.
    In Sweden, December 26th is a day of socializing. Children’s parties are held in the afternoon, while adults parties are held later in the evening and animals are given extra food.

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 In this season of games and merriment, there is little mention of children's bedtimes. In this time of long, cold, dark winter nights, the lights of Christmas and the songs of  celebration happily mark the Twenty Days of Christmas, ending January 13th, St. Knut’s Day.

        Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul 

(Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas)