"'Twas The Night Before Christmas.."

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 celebrating the birth of Jesus, the last week of December.

 Christmas is traditionally celebrated on the 24th of December in Scandinavia, but it starts long before that with preparations of food and shopping.

 In Sweden, youngsters made sure that they had  their stockings hung at the end of their bed before the morning of the 24th, Christmas Eve.That morning, after examining  the stockings contents, joyous activities were enjoyed  until  3 pm. At this time, much of Sweden gathered their families to do, of all things,  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.

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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 their country's flag, or white lights resembling

  bonfires that lit up 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.

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 The traditional Scandinavian kitchen will have prepared 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 and ham. The herring is pickled and comes in many variations, tasting of garlic, tomato or mustard. Other dishes include lutefisk, as well as meatballs, 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 Nicholas whose generosity became the inspiration for today’s American Santa Claus. The most characteristic features of Norway's 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.
At any rate, the Jultomte delivers his presents in person, 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. On the Epiphany (Twelfth Night), villagers would dress up as biblical characters and sing hymns from home to home.

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 Perhaps there may be a knock on the door by a group of carolers dressed in costumes and masks. They are the julbukkers who are making their way to their neighbors for Christmas cakes and delicacies. In this season of games and merriment, there is little mention of children's bedtimes as they dare the neighbors to guess their identity.

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. Twenty days and twenty nights of happiness and joy in a long,cold winter!

Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul:

 "Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas”.

God Jul!

How Many More Days...?

How many more days...?

Long winter nights cause problems with our mental health. To this day, SAD is an acronym of  Seasonal  Affective Disorder. In Scandinavia during the winter months, the sun would disappear for great lengths of time. After thirty-five of such dark days known as Mørketiden, or “The Murky Time”,

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 scouts would be sent to the mountain tops to await the return of this life-giving heavenly body. When the first light was sighted, the scouts would hurry back to their villages to announce the good news.   In celebration, a great festival would be held, called the Yuletide, and a special feast would be served around a fire burning with the Yule log. Huge bonfires would also be lit to celebrate the welcome return of the Sun. In some areas, people would tie apples to the branches of trees as a reminder that Spring and Summer would eventually return.

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Other  decorative pagan mid-winter rituals  featured a wreath of evergreen with four candles. The candles were placed in each of the four directions to represent the elements of earth, wind, water and fire. Rites were performed  to ensure the continuation of the circle of life also symbolized by the evergreen wreath. Important  beliefs established by ancient traditions  still practised in part,  today.

Wreaths are, in essence, an eternal part of the festive season. In ancient Greece, a coral wreath was awarded to victors in sporting events, in much the same way that today's

Apollo wearing a laurel wreath

 Olympic champions are awarded gold medals. Wreaths were, and still are a sign of victory, and in Roman times, were often hung upon doors of those victorious in battle, thus advertising their status.

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The Wichern Wreath

The Advent Wreath originated in Eastern Germany. Advent wreaths are round...having no beginning and no ending. It is also likened to the circle of life.There is evidence that suggests the Advent wreath was not invented until the 19th century. Johann Hinrich Wichern (1808–1881) was  a Protestant pastor in Germany  whose mission was to work among the poor. He is credited as the source of the modern Advent wreath. During Advent, children at a mission school  in Hamburg would constantly ask him when Christmas would arrive. In 1839, he built a large wooden ring with 19 small red and 4 large white candles fashioned from an old cartwheel  . A small candle was lit  every weekday during Advent. On Sundays, a large white candle was lit. The custom gained ground among Protestant churches in Germany and evolved into the smaller wreath with four or five candles known today.

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Scandinavian wreaths feature candles, which illuminate the winter nights as everyone awaits the future light of Spring. It was once believed that the wreath and candles would encourage the Norse God of Light to turn the world back toward the direction of the Sun.

 In Scandinvian homes, the approach of Christmas is signified by getting out the Advent candlestick, which is often a little box with four candleholders embedded in moss and lingonberry sprigs. The first candle is lit on the First Sunday in Advent and allowed to burn down by one quarter. Next Sunday it is time for the second candle, and so on, until by the fourth Sunday the first candle has burnt right down and the last one was started.

 This is a peculiarly Swedish custom, but it was inspired by the “Advent trees” of Germany and became widespread in the 1920s. The Advent wreath, is a Christian tradition that symbolizes the passage of the four weeks of Advent in the liturgical calendar of the Western church. The Advent Wreath is traditionally a Lutheran practice that has spread to many other Christian denominations.

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The time of Advent is coming to a close, and soon we will be celebrating the day of Christmas. Some might call it the day of Xmas. While many would feel the term "Xmas" is derogatory or secular, Xmas had it's place in earlier days.

The term "Xmas" instead of "Christmas" is Greek in origin. The word for "Christ" in Greek is "Xristos." during the Sixteenth Century, Europeans began using the first initial of Christ's name...the "X" of "Xristos"...in place of the word "Christ" as a shorthand version of the word "Christmas." Although early Christians understood that the "X"
was simply another form for the name of Jesus Christ, later Christians, who had no knowledge of the Greek language, mistook "Xmas" as a sign of disrespect. Eventually, however, "Xmas" came to be both an accepted and suitable alternative to the word "Christmas."

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The word Advent has its origins in the Latin word adventus, which means arrival. The arrival of The Christ Child. Commercial enterprises have not been able to capitalize on the four weeks of Advent, but quickly jump to the lucrative profits of  Santa Claus and Xmas! However, the term Xmas may not be, as many feel, demeaning!

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     The celebration of Advent  is of fairly recent origin. It is only in our own time that attendance at Swedish church services on the first Sunday in Advent match attendance at the early morning service of Christmas Day. Church attendance tops  the year’s attendance figures in otherwise secular Sweden at this time for honoring the family, both living and dead, and for celebrating the rebirth of the Sun in the depth of winter.  The sun had disappeared about 30 days ago, and they hopefully awaited it’s reappearance.The people rejoiced by feasting, gift giving, visiting friends and kin, and remembering those family members who have died.

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The Drinking Horn  Dec 25th

Yule marks the death of one year and the birth of another, as a turning of the endless cycle.Two hundred fifty years before the Roman/Christian calendar was accepted, the Runic Era calendar was followed.   December 20th marked  the arrival of winter. It marked a time of preparation as the long nights became a bit shorter. December 22nd marked the winter solstice, signaling as celebratory time of feasting and drinking when the sun returned to the world. In our modern world, this evolved into a celebration marking the birth of The ChristChild ,and our new beginning.

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Yule marks the death of one year and the birth of another, as a turning of the endless cycle.

So, how many days...?  "Pretty soon!".