The Canadian Winter Olympics symbol of the Vancouver games is well known for Norwegians: The inuksuk is to be seen in Oslo by the Maritime Museum at Bygdøy island:

An inuksuk (plural inuksuit) is a stone landmark or cairn, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America, from Alaska to Greenland. The inuksuk may have been used for navigation, as a point of reference, a marker for hunting grounds, or as a food cache. The Inupiat in northern Alaska used inuksuit to assist in the herding of caribou into contained areas for slaughter. There are four authentic inuksuit around the world donated by the government of Canada: in Monterrey, Mexico – Washington, D.C. – Guatemala City and Oslo, Norway:

In 2005, The Canadian Ambassador to Norway unveiled an inuksuk at Bygdøy Maritime Museum in Oslo to celebrate Norway’s centennial (100 years since end to the Union between Sweden and Norway, 1814 – 1905). It was of course also recognizing the fondness our people have for each other and given as a symbol of the special relationship there exists between our two countries of the North.

The strong ties between Norway & Canada started with the Viking visits to Newfoundland, their brief settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, and continue through Roald Amundsen’s successful exploration through the Northwest Passage one hundred years ago. (1903-1906) During World War II Norwegian pilots trained at Little Norway, a training camp in southern Ontario. Today, our two countries share common visions on the international scene; we cooperate in fields such as Arctic Council, human security, the UN reform among others.

It is especially poignant that the inuksuk is created by Joseph Suqslak, a resident of Gjoa Haven in Nunavut. Amundsen spent three winters in Gjoa Haven before his successful attempt at sailing the Northwest Passage. The name of the community bears witness of the visiting ship. Without the willingness of the Inuit to share their knowledge and skills of survival in the arctic winter it is questionable whether Amundsen would have succeeded in his attempt:

Left: Amundsen’s boat Gjøa to the right – Right: Opposite side with Gjøa in front of The Fram and Maritime Museum.
The inuksuk next to the boat Gjøa was installed by Mr. Mattiusi Iyaituk, and artist and President of the Board of Directors of the Inuit Art Foundation in Canada.

The Olympics logo has become more and more a national symbol of the hosting county and showing some typical or genuine part of the countries roots or nature. Vancouver’s is a great example and here is the similar for the two games in Norway:

Left: In the centre the Olympic rings with the silhouette of the New Town Hall of Oslo. On the outside border the inscription “The VI Olympics Winter Games Oslo 1952″.
Right: A stylized aurora borealis (Northern lights) and snow crystals, the Olympic rings.

Since the start of the Vancouver games, the inuksuk in Oslo has been a very popular photo object. When my wife DianeCA and I were there today to shoot the pics for this post, we met people from all over the world – even China! Two girls where swarming around this strange stone statue. When I told them what it was and the purpose of my visit, they willingly posed – even if it was freezing cold

It is always fun for me to meet new people from around the world and I am hoping this summer to meet many more friends! Remember the museums on Bygdøy Island will be available to participants at the Oslo Blog Gathering in August and I am really looking forward to guiding you around this beautiful place. So do another local gathering host, posting about the same: TorAa.

28 Comments »

The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History comprises a huge park containing examples of all the major folk architectural styles from throughout Norway. It’s the oldest open air museum in the world (established as early as 1894) with 158 buildings representing different regions and time periods in the Norwegian history dating back to the 16th century. They are carefully taken apart, transported from their location and put back together again on the site:

_{The Farmstead of Numedal; extends from the Hardanger plateau down to the town of Kongsberg.}

So the placement of these buildings in relation to each other followed regional patterns. The loft and bur in Telemark were commonly placed side by side:

_{The loft has a gallery on three sides on the upper floor and is decorated with carved floral motifs.}


Not only are you able to see the houses outside, but inside it’s furnished too:

_{Farmhouse from Hallingdal – 1750.}


Throughout the year there are activities and exhibits of all kinds, as well as various reconstructed activities of everyday life:


_{How about horse &carriage rides through the open-air museum?}



You can participate in spring cleaning or buy authentic lefse, a kind of soft flat bread baked on the open fireplace like it was 200 years ago:

_{Inside an old farm house, two girls were demonstrating making the dough and baking and all gets a taste:}


They willingly shared the baking tradition and recipe – Hardanger Lefse: 2 egg, 250 gram sugar, 125 gram melted butter, ½ litre milk, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 kilo flour.
Mix egg, sugar & butter and stir in milk. Mix baking powder with some flour and blend. Mix enough flour so it’s easy to roll. Bake on a griddle or a dry pan:


The Old Town part of the open air exhibition contains buildings from the 1600s and upwards. There is a Historic Playground and an old fashioned Grocery Store from the beginning of the 1900s as well:


_{Colonial – Milk – Delicacy}



This historical museum is enjoyable for the entire family. They plan activities for the children as well, and this was always a popular place when my children were small. They loved to go in and out of these fascinating buildings, they loved to pet the horse drawing the wagon and maybe give him some hay, and they loved the children’s activities. This weekend the theme was fastelaven, or the Sunday before the Easter fast, which the Catholics call Lent. As in Mardi Gras and Carnival, the rich foods like eggs, crème and butter were supposed to be used up so we have a tradition with crème filled sweet rolls. At the museum they had mask making for a kind of Carnival experience which as you can see here the children really enjoyed!


There is a lot more to explore and learn about Norway, our culture and history: The permanent exhibits include Folk Art, first half of the Parliament, Norwegian Folk Costumes, toys and more. The Norwegian Evening is an event held here in July and August where music, traditional dance, singing and other activities take place. I hope you will join us sometime – maybe at the Oslo Blog Gathering in August??

Update: I shared this adventure with my wife – hop over and read her report too: DianeCA

28 Comments »

The exhibition Back To The 80s in Oslo at The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History is a reminder of this decade of contrasts. It helps us to understand that history is happening here and now, that there is no coincidence and that we’re going to face it again. The story is not over – and the 80’s are not yet forgotten.

_{Anyone remember these fashions or Miami Vice?}


I was in my 30s at the time and remember much of this exhibition well. Some of us have spent almost 20 years trying to forget the 1980s. We have destroyed the images of ourselves with short hair on top and long in the neck (maybe hair everywhere, sprayed and teased up to a fur balls the size of the sun). We have sent Poco Loco-sweaters, shoulder pads and our white washed jeans to Africa. We have done our best to suppress the music that can best be described as a crime against humanity, like Kenny G’s Songbird, Modern Talking, Brother Louie or the Beach Boys’ Kokomo.

_{Do you still have you’re LPs and enjoy vinyl?}


The girls are no longer lounging in their pleather sofas and dreaming of Pat Sharp, Don Johnson and Patrick Swayze, but they still blush mysteriously when they remember their dates at Café Checkmate with newly rich Yuppies (young upwardly mobile professional individuals) and tanned UN soldiers home on leave from the war in Lebanon.

_{No girls in the sofa when I was there, but I still enjoyed the Stress Less}

Contrasts:
For many of us the 1980s represents a historical base point which we have partly succeeded in forgetting. But, as Bruce Springsteen sings in The Riverside from 1980; Memories come back to Haunt me. The exhibition shows that the 80s was a decade that perhaps more than anything else was characterized by sharp contrasts; between community involvement and individualism – despair and optimism as well as wealth and poverty – black and pastel, Punk Rock and dance pop and even between fear and liberation. All this was well illustrated at stands, displays rooms and furnishings:

_{The exhibition room at The Folk Museum.}


Laughter and suspense:
While the music of pop artists was positive and upbeat, the 80s began with intense fear at the height of the Cold War, right wing politics of The Reagan administration and Margret Thatcher. Fortunately it ended with liberation, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and a completely changed political climate.

_{Posters of pop icons: Madonna, Duran Duran, Michel Jackson, Bonjovi and Dire Straits.}


Along the way, we invented CD players and computers bread and milk became available around the clock, environmentalists who were more than hippies and a housing boom. The banks could lend us money to buy new homes. Having fun was allowed again. Here is a collection of stands that might jog your memory:

<sub>Left: Mac & Osborn (I had both!) – Right: TV & Videogames

Left: Children become consumers with Star Wars and designer clothes – Right: Adults got VHF cassette players.</sub>


It was an impressive and very visual exhibition taking me right down memory lane from the decade when I got finished my college years and got my masters degree in economics, started my career as a sales trainee, had my first born – a daughter, played A-Ha’s big hit Take on Me on my record player, bought my first Volvo and experienced the introduction of micro computers (do you remember spread sheets like SuperCalc and VisiCalc or WordPerfect?). What a blast from the past.

This is an example of the kinds of exhibition you may see at The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. Here are some other earlier posts from there: Lefse and rural farmhouse from Norway and Folk Dance in Bunad from Norway.
It’s at Bygdøy island, just 20 minuets by boat or buss from Oslo, where you also find the Maritime, Viking Ship, KonTiki and even more museums. All this will be at your disposal at the Oslo Blog Gathering in Oslo in August this year. Even more: if you join us and book the Program Fee – entrance to these museums will be included! Click the logo to the left to read the program and how you can participant at a compact three days program to explore the city and Norway’s history, culture and traditions!

29 Comments »

Celebrating Christmas or Yuletide in Scandinavia goes thousands of years back. As the name implies, feasting is a major part of Yuletide traditions and who could blame them to find some lightening as the days became shorter and shorter; December 13 to 24 were days full of traditions that were instituted to insure the “resurrection” of the sun. In Finnish, it is “Joul” while as in Norway, Sweden and Denmark “Jul”. This gives a wide flavours of Christian and pagan histories, traditions and of course folklore. Today I’ll present you to the Yule Nisse or Tomte in Swedish. You may call him Santa Claus, but Nissen has a much longer history. I was at a Christmas market the other day and shoot some pics and hope you’ll get the idea:

History, myth and maybe a bit of facts, says that Yule Nisse is a combination of 4 historical personages:
An Evil Gnome/Ogre:
There is a very old Finnish legend of an evil gnome with god-like powers, named Jouluppukki – originally a really bad guy coming from the north, flying or riding on some beast (possibly a goat or a buck, joulupukki means Yule Buck). He would demand gifts from the people and if these gifts were not satisfactory, Joulupukki would wreak havoc upon the people. There is a similar tradition in Iceland where he was called Jolasveinar.

A Finnish Prince:
There is also a story about a Finnish prince named Lemminkaimen, allegedly the 12th son of Ukko and Akka (the famous grandparents of the Finish race), who was allegedly the sole survivor of the royal family when the so-called Christian Swedes invaded Finland. He was a benevolent prince-king who escaped the Swedes by going to Lapland in northern Finland. He wore red like the modern Santa Claus and rode a goat or buck and got the nickname: Joulupukki.

Thor or Odin:
A man-like god from the Norse mythology, with bright red hair flying through the air in his chariot being drawn by two goats. That would be Thor, a benevolent god who would bestow gifts to humans in return for porridge, especially around winter solstice. He may have worn red, as red is said to be “his” colour, and he is also known as the Yule Elf.
Odin was sometimes recorded, at the native Germanic holiday of Yule, as leading a great hunting party through the sky – riding an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir that could leap great distances, giving rise to comparisons to Santa Claus’s reindeer.

A Catholic Bishop:
There allegedly was a Catholic Bishop named Nicholas, who was stationed in Myra, in present-day Turkey, who was said to have been extremely benevolent to children. After his death he was beatified by the pope and he became the patron saint of children. December 6th is St. Nicholas Day in many countries, including Belgium, Netherlands, & Poland.

Since I grew up in a village or at the countryside (and remember about 50 years back ), I so much remember another little fellow: The Fjøsnisse or barn gnome:

The Nisse shares many aspects with other Scandinavian wrights such as the Swedish “vättar” (from the Old Norse “landvættir”) or the Norwegian “tusser”. These beings are social, whereas the Nisse is always solitary. Some synonyms of Nisse include “gårdbo” (farm or yard-dweller), “god bonde” (good farmer) or Fjøsnisse (barn gnome). In other European folklore, there are many beings similar to the Nisse, such as the Scots Brownie, English Hob, the German Heinzelmännchen or the Russian Domovoi.

I remember – even if I didn’t grow up on a farm – that we always set out porridge to The Nisse at Christmas Eve (see the porridge bowl at the second picture in front of the cat and the Nisse!). We never actually saw the Nisse, but we saw foot prints in the snow and of course the bowl was empty the day after While writing this, I get the Yule spirit and feel the anticipation for this feast season. This mixed feeling of fare and care for the Nisse and all other myths and traditions connected with the darkest time of the year makes me feel childish – even more, the older I get I think!

So how about you; any myth, traditions or special history connected with this Yuletide and Santa from your childhood?

33 Comments »