It’s time to open a new book with blank pages. The book – or blog in my case – I will call it “Opportunity”, and the first chapter is devoted to a Happy New Year Greeting. I could write about New Year’s Resolutions, New Year Greeting Cards, New Year’s Day Messages etc., but have decided to concentrate on a look at our New Year’s Eve traditions. Still at the darkest and often coldest time of the year this sets the…
Christmas or Yuletide and New Year are connected to very old traditions and important celebrations in Norway. Keep in mind we are on top of the northern hemisphere. After a long period of darkness and cold, no wonder people needed a break and celebrated “the return of the sun” – with wild feasts that lasted for days. These traditions are all based on folklore and myths since the return of the sun has an important influence on our daily life…
Yuletide, the return of the sun and now Christmas calls for a special celebration and brings old time traditions based on folklore and myths in Norway. After a long period of darkness and cold, no wonder people needed a break and celebrated with wild feasts the fact that “the sun was coming back”. In Oslo (latitude of 60° North) it means max 6 hours daylight with the sun only low on the horizon at midday, compared to 19 hours and…
Its Happy New Year greetings time again, to open a new book with blank pages and put my own words on them. The book – or in my case blog – is called “Opportunity” and its first chapter is New Year’s Day. I could write about New Year’s Resolutions, New Year Greeting Cards, New Year’s Day Messages etc., but have decided to concentrate on a look at New Year’s Eve and traditions – ours then; To make it short, in…
A Nisse is a mythical creature of Scandinavian folklore, called Tomte in Sweden and Tonttu in Finland – originally believed to take care of a farmer’s home and children and protect them from misfortune, in particular at night, when the house folk were asleep: type Fjøsnisse (Fjøs = barn). Nisse is a nickname for Nils, and its usage in folklore comes from expressions such as “Nisse good dräng” (= Nisse good lad, cf. Robin Goodfellow) – all names connecting the…