As previously mentioned, most Norwegians will eat one of about five different dishes for Christmas dinner. I wrote about lutefisk a few days ago, and on Sunday I'll write about pinnekjøtt, but today, the topic is cod. Specifically, fresh cod, or "fersk torsk" as it is known in Norwegian.

I'm not entirely certain about this, but I have heard that there are mostly two types of people who eat fresh cod as Christmas dinner. Firstly, there are the people who live along the coast and who spend a lot of time fishing in small open boats, and then there are people who live in cities which are close to the sea, but where it's not as common to go fishing. I should probably also point out that far from everyone who lives in these places eat fresh cod. According to the Norwegian wikipedia page on Christmas food, only about 1% of the population will have cod for Christmas.

I must confess, I always found this a bit surprising. When I was a kid, I "didn't like fish", and especially cod I thought of as a quite boring, everyday type of food, and I thought it was madness to have it as a Christmas dinner. As I've grown older, I've started to like cod quite a lot, but I still feel it's a bit unspectacular, and in particular people who spend a lot of time fishing probably have cod loads of times during a ...

I går stemte altså britiske politikere over planene om å øke skolepengene på engelske universiteter fra £3,000 til £9,000 i året. Selv om Skottland ikke er direkte berørt av denne beslutningen (Skottland har ikke hatt skolepenger for skotske studenter siden Devolution (som skjedde omtrent samtidig med innføringen av skolepenger, interessant nok), og de har lavere skolepenger for engelske studenter enn England har -- særlig etter at England innførte top-up fees i 2004) har det som tidligere nevnt vært flere protester her. Det er delvis i solidaritet med engelske studenter, men bunner også i en forståelse av at vi har å gjøre med komplekse systemer, og at det som skjer i England vil påvirke Skottland i lengden.

I går holdt Edinburgh en "candlelight vigil" mens vi ventet på å høre resultatet av voteringen. Det har vært veldig spennende å følge de politiske manøvreringene her i det siste. LibDems lovte jo før valget å stemme mot økning i skolepenger, og hadde også sagt at de ville jobbe for å fjerne dem helt med tiden. Siden de gikk i regjering med Conservatives har mye av tiden og energien vært brukt på å prøve å finne et smutthull i lovnadene de hadde skrevet under på, såkalte "pledges".

Som litteraturstudent har jeg funnet det veldig fascinerende. De skrev under på at

I pledge...
TO VOTE AGAINST
ANY INCREASE IN FEES
in the next parliament
and to pressure the
government to introduce
A FAIRER ALTERNATIVE

og har siden prøvd å få det til at siden ...

In Norway, we have the expression "julebakst", which can mean either "the stuff you bake for Christmas", or "the act of baking the stuff you bake for Christmas". Traditionally, it has been said that one should have "sju sorter" (seven kinds) of different cakes or cookies for Christmas. I have no idea when this tradition started, but I find it to be a bit over the top, as I sometimes bake one or two kinds of cookies, and even then we usually have trouble eating it all before Christmas is over. Of course, it is possible to bake less of each kind, but that increases the amount of washing up per cookie, so it's not something I recommend.

Naturally, there is a long list of considerably more than seven kinds to choose from, as it wouldn't be any fun if everyone had the same seven. Popular choices include "pepperkake" (literally "pepper cake", but it's a kind of ginger bread), "julebrød" (Christmas bread, essentially sweet white bread with rasins), "smultring" (literally "lard ring", means doughnut), "lefse" (I don't know how to translate lefse. It has roughly the shape and consistency of large tortillas, but usually a bit softer and sweeter. Served either buttered with sugar and cinnamon, or plain as a side to some kinds of dinner.), "fattigmann" (means "poor man", which is funny, as the recipe include egg yolks, cream and cognac) and "julemenn".



Julemenn, which literally means "Christmas men", is probably my favourite. It ...

I was fairly certain I had understood the basics of the Norwegian tradition "julebukk". Essentially, "å gå julebukk" ("to go julebukk") means that one dresses up more or less as described in my post about Nissedag and goes from door to door in ones neighbourhood, asking for sweets. This is usually done by children, usually during the week between Christmas and New Year's, and it is quite common that they will sing Christmas carols before asking for sweets, though I'm not sure the carols are mandatory.

Julebukk is, I think, a part of many people's romanticised idea of what Christmas is, along with things like snow and nice, cold weather. Paintings of dressed up children singin is also frequently found on Christmas cards, and julebukk is also the main topic of the song "Romjulsdrøm" by Alf Prøysen:

En skulle vøri fire år i romjul'n
og kjint ei jinte som var nesten fem,
og begge skulle kledd seg ut med masker
og kømmi julbokk tel et bæssmorhem.

Translation, by me (though I tried google, with amusing results):

One should have been four years old during Boxing week,
and known a girl of almost five,
and both should have dressed up with masks,
and gone julebukk to the house of a grandmother.

Even though I have never done this myself, I still feel that this is an important tradition which should be kept alive. I suspect that julebook is being replaced by Hallowe'en as the one go-to-the-neighbours-and-demand-sweets-occasion ...

In the time leading up to and around Christmas, it is quite common in Norway to drink something called "gløgg". It is also known as "julegløgg", with "jul" meaning Christmas, or "tomtegløgg", which is actually the name of what I'm guessing is the most popular brand. "Tomte" is a Swedish word for "nisse" which is sometimes used in Norwegian as well. Gløgg is usually sold as a sort of syrup, consisting of water, sugar and extracts of various spices, and this syrup is supposed to be mixed twice as much water or red wine, and heated. It is also common to add rasins and/or chopped almonds.

In the last week or so before Christmas, it is not uncommon for shops to have someone handing out cups of the non-alcoholic version of gløgg to Christmas shoppers (in Norway it's illegal to give away alchohol for free to the general public). The version with red wine is more commonly used at pre-christmas parties, either at specific gløgg-parties, or as a welcome drink at a party. Incidentally, I've been appointed second gløgg-assistant at the julebord I'm attending this week.

I tried reading the list of ingredients of the bottle of gløgg i bought today, but the spices are hidden behind the unhelpful label "aroma", so I'm not entirely sure what it consists of. Still, from the taste I'm guessing clove buds, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and maybe others. As these spices, as well as sugar, make ...

In kindergartens and schools in Norway, it is quite common to have something called a "nissedag" at some point during advent. "Dag" means "day", and a "nisse" is a mythical creature thought to live at farms. They would do some sort of unspecified good deeds (at least if they were kept happy, by giving them some rice pudding from time to time), but generally be very elusive and only move about at night (a common trait among mythical creatures, as they would otherwise just be creatures). I guess you could say the nisse is more or less the Scandinavian version of the brownie.

A nisse is traditionally seen as smaller than a human, I'd say about half to one third the size of grown person, and they are usually pictured with white beards, and wearing traditional clothing such as a knitted sweater, plus fours (made from coarse grey wool, not tweed), woolen stockings and a red hat (after brushing up on my hat related vocabulary at wikipedia, I'd say it's similar to a Phrygian cap), so essentially old fashioned skiing gear. And this is precisely what people will dress up like at a nissedag (though in general you would get away with putting on a red shirt). But why this weird tradition of dressing up as mythical creatures, and how is this releated to Christmas?

The truth is that I have no idea how this came about, but I'd bet it has something to do with ...

In Norway, the definitive Christmas dinner is eaten at Christmas eve, usually starting around five or six in the evening. As with most things related to Christmas, there are traditions to consider, and most people will have one of roughly five different traditional meals, and almost always the same thing each year. There are of course variations in the sides and so on, but I would guess that 90% of the population will have one of "pinnekjøtt", "svineribbe", turkey, fresh cod or "lutefisk". In order to make it to 24 articles, I'm going to write about each of these meals (except turkey), and as requested by Ulf, the topic for today is "lutefisk". But first, the legal stuff:

Disclaimer:
I have eaten lutefisk two or three times. The first one or two was years and years ago, and the last time was years ago. Hence, I don't have a lot of personal recent experience, and this article will partially be based on prejudice. However, lutefisk is of course chemistry, so in addition to experience and prejudice, there is also fact. I will try to keep all three separate.

The facts:
"Lutefisk" means "lye fish". In other words "sodium hydroxide fish". To make lutefisk you start with dried cod (or I suppose you start with cod, and then dry it, but dried cod is commonly available, and using it shaves about six months off the cooking time for lutefisk, so that's what most people do), which you soak ...

Originally, I thought this would be a good day to write about the tradition of advent candles, as it is the first Sunday of advent. It turns out, however, that it is in fact the second Sunday of advent, for technical reasons to do with 4 x 7 being a slightly more than 24, and Christmas Eve being a Saturday this year. Still, a plan is a plan, and like many other great men, I see no reason to change my plan just because of silly little things like facts.

When I was a kid, we used to burn advent candles both at home and at school. At home, we had a circular candlestick with four purple candles, and we would burn the first one for a while on the first Sunday of advent, then the first and the second, on the second Sunday, etc., etc., thus giving the candles different length, which for me is still the image of what advent candles should look like. At school, we would do pretty much the same, except the candlestick was linear instead of circular, which I always thought looked a bit odd, and of course we didn't go to school on Sundays, so it would probably be on a Friday or a Monday.

Looking back, I find it a bit weird that this tradition had such a prominent place both at home and at school. From what I read on the Internets (i.e. wikipedia), it appears to be mostly ...

In Norway, there is usually snow for at least parts of the winter, and certainly around Christmas there is likely to be some snow. At least that was the case when I was a kid, in the good old days. Because of the snow, a lot of birds will migrate south during winter, but some are a bit tougher than the rest, and stay in Norway during the winter.

While the birds probably don't need our help, it is quite common to provide some sort of food for them. For example a lot of people will have some sort of platform, which can be very simple, or more elaborate, for example a tiny house, mounted outside their window. You put some suitable food for birds on this platform, and then you can sit inside, in the comfort of your own home, and watch the birds as they eat and fight and flutter and twitter and whatever else birds do. It is really quite enjoyable.

As I said, in Norway we will usually have snow for quite a while during winter. Also, it is said that if you have first begun feeding the birds, you need to keep it up until spring, otherwise they will show up expecting to find food, and if it's not there, they will die slowly and painfully from starvation. I don't know if this is strictly true, but the point is that it is quite ...

"Juletrefest", literally "Christmas tree party", is a traditional Norwegian party for children, often held during advent, or sometimes between Christmas and New Year's Eve. It is usually arranged by the school or the kindergarten, and can thus be said to be a julebord for children, though it's normally not a dinner party. As the name indicates, there will usually be a Christmas tree present, and popular activities include walking around the tree in one or more concentric circles, singing Christmas carols, and eating rice pudding. There can also be other party games and eating of cake or various kinds of Christmas cookies (about which more later). Often, one of the parents not present at the party will dress up as Santa and pay a short visit to hand out candy and/or mandarins.

It is not traditional in Norway to fool children into believing in Santa, though at smaller family gatherings the father of the house will sometimes excuse himself to step outside for a moment, and by a weird coincidence Santa will always show up shortly afterwards. However, the children are usually not very old when they start questioning the appearence of Santa, wearing dad's slippers, when dad just happens to be outside. In such cases, it is good sport to have an accomplice put on dad's slippers and dress up as Santa, so dad can come back inside while Santa is still in the room.

This article ended up a bit shorter than I had imagined, but I can't think of much more to say on the topic. Looking back, I have real trouble seeing how any juletrefest could possibly last for more than three quarters of on hour.

-Tor Nordam