Easter in Norway

The celebration of Easter in Norway is unique.  Nobody volunteers for crucifixion like in the Phillipines.  There are no processions of two-ton statues of Jesus carried by young men like in Spain.  In fact, Easter, as celebrated by most Norwegians is not religious at all.

Norway is, however, officially a "Christian" nation.  It's national church follows Lutheranism.  As a "Christian" nation, it takes Christian Holidays.  So, in addition to Christmas Day, and "Boxing Day" (Dec. 26), Norway also recognizes Maundy Thursday ("Holy Thursday"), Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Ascension Thursday, Whit Sunday (Pentecost) and Whit Monday.  With Thursday, Friday and the Monday after Easter "off", many Norwegians take Monday through Wednesday of Easter Week as vacation days, reaping a ten day break for the price of three vacation days.

I think of Easter here as a combination of Memorial Day and Thanksgiving, but perhaps not in the sense you might think.  While Memorial Day is a day we are to remember those who died in service to our country, it has become, in practice, the celebratory ushering in of Summer.  Likewise, Easter in Norway has become, or has long been, the ushering in of Spring. 

The end of Winter and the beginning of Spring is, of course, very important here.  The change is dramatic and most welcome after the dark, cold, long winter.  It is invigorating and uplifting to see the snow melt, the trees bud, the daffodils bloom and to hear the songbirds sing.  It is thrilling to watch the flying "Vees" of geese returning north.  The sun is so much stronger, you can easily feel the difference, and it gets light right now before 5 a.m. and does not get dark until almost 10 p.m.

So Easter celebrates Spring with all of the energy and vitality that the season brings to us.  But, also, Easter is about "Family".  Just as Thanksgiving brings families together, so does Easter in Norway.  This is a time for families to go to the cabin in the mountains or at the coast and simply be together.  But there are some odd activities that have become part of Norwegian Easter tradition:

"EASTER CRIME"  This is my unfair literal translation of Norwegian into English.  It really means "Easter Mystery Fiction".  The "mystery" genre in Norwegian is called "krim" which literally means crime.  During Easter people read mysteries.  They read everything from modern mystery novels to classics written by Christie, Hammett and Chandler.  TV programming during Easter Week features classic mystery movies and TV series (Poirot, BBC Mystery Theatre, etc.).

"Quiz"  Throughout the week, the radio does a quiz geography game (not just this Easter, but EVERY Easter).  People call the station and they are given clues (from obscure to obvious) to where a place is, then if the caller guesses correctly, the radio host gives clues to the next place to travel to, and so on and so on.  For example, the host might say, "This place according to Mark Twain can have winter-like summer days . . ." and if the caller doesn't guess correctly, he might continue . . . "it grew quickly after gold was discovered near by . . . ."  You get the idea.

But, that's not all . . . Every newspaper and weekly "gossipy" magazine (equivalents to "People" and "Us" in the US) have pages and pages of "quiz" questions covering pop culture, geography, history, etc.  So, when we are not out enjoying Spring, or reading our mystery novels or watching a mystery show on TV, then someone could be posing the quiz questions to all of us and we all shout out the answers, wrongly or rightly, or we ask the questioner for clues to help us guess ("first letter of the person's last name" "OK, second letter, too"). 

That's my general impression of Easter in Norway.  Next post, from the general to the specific.