This ranges from opportunities to buy local produce from farmers (meats, cheeses and gifts) to tucking into a reindeer burger in a tent by an open fire. Stalls typically offer a selection of products from local craftspeople and artists. While snow is not guaranteed at this time of year in many places, you are pretty assured of chilly temperatures! That makes the spiced, mulled wine (gløgg) taste all the sweeter. That's when Christmas markets spring up in towns and cities across the city. The festivities tend to get going in the early part of December. Sound familiar? Christmas markets in Norway Julenisse means the gift-bearing nisse at Christmas time. Tomte by jpellgen (Flickr Creative Commons)Ī creation from Scandinavian folklore, a nisse (tomte in Sweden) is a short creature with a long white beard and a red hat. In order to retain the privacy of his secret location, the Elf folk decided to build a place where Santa could meet people from near and far at the Northern Arctic Circle.īut despite his home being so close, Santa Claus is not the most common Christmas icon here in Norway. When Santa Claus declared Rovaniemi as his hometown, he told how his home at Ear Mountain (Korvatunturi) was revealed at the beginning of the last century and how this closely guarded secret spread the world over. The Santa Claus Village tells the story as follows: The Norwegian Santa Clausįirst up folks, sorry to say but, there's no such thing as Santa Claus! But seriously, the real Santa Claus lives in Rovaniemi, Finland. Some may give bonus days to reduce the amount of vacation days an employee needs to take from their annual allowance. It's one of my favourite words in Norwegian as it's only six letters long yet we don't have an equivalent word in English! Simply put, it translates as: “that time between Christmas and New Year when no-one is really sure what they should be doing.”Įmployees are often encouraged by their employers to take the period of romjul off as part of their annual leave. Christmas Day is a much quieter affair and often quite private. Julaften (Christmas Eve) is the day when presents are exchanged and the whole family gets together for the main Christmas meal. But here in Norway, the focal point of the celebration is very much the evening of the 24th December. It sounds like a stupid question, right? Well, I grew up with 25th December as the focal point of Christmas. While the celebrations are not as notable as in Sweden, young Norwegian children often participate via their school or kindergarten. Some Christian traditions are also observed, such as Santa Lucia Day on 13th December. So, jul follows a Christian calendar but has retained several pre-Reformation and pre-Christian elements. The full jul period is made up of five phases: advent, julaften, romjul, nyttår, and epiphany. That being said, most people use jul to refer to the week stretching from Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve. The term jul is common throughout Scandinavia, referring to a period of time that lasts several weeks in total. The reality, as you shouldn't be surprised to learn, is quite different! Here are just some of the Norwegian Christmas traditions I've learned about over the last years. Most people outside of Norway think Christmas time here must be really magical, winter markets, snow everywhere, colourful lights, reindeer strolling along the streets, and of course, Lapland is the home of Santa Claus, right?
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