Easter In Norway

By Leonard Granger

LEN’S LINES —A little Religion on a Positive Note by Len Granger

The world celebrated Easter Sunday, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in many different ways. When I think of Norway, a land of the Vikings with ice and snow, few people probably know the Norwegians have some of the strangest traditions. Mickey Bambrick, a column writer for the La Conner Weekly News, La Conner Washington, visited the homeland of her ancestors over the Easter holiday, and was really surprised how Norway was so different.

The week before Easter all the schools closed and many people take that week off. Even the stores are only open a few hours each day, and not at all on Thursday or Friday before Easter or the Monday after, which are holidays. About 40% of the population own cabins in the mountains, so that is where they head for the week, and the other 60% join them. While gone they must be sure to have two food items for Easter with them, oranges and a quick lunch bar called “Kwik Lunsj”. Also for the past hundred years, they must read a crime novel or two, and the bookstores go crazy promoting all the new Easter released crime novels.

One of the weirdest “traditions” about Easter she found was that most churches were closed on Easter Sunday, because so many people had gone to the mountains. She writes, when I was home in America, we would dress up in our finest, make sure to arrive early to get a good seat, and look forward to worshiping the Lord on Easter Sunday. We were totally shocked to find the church doors locked and no one around. So we went down the street to another church and found very few people in attendance, with no one dressed in their frilly dresses or finest suits.

After church, as I was preparing a big Easter dinner, I saw a neighbor girl riding her bike, so I hollered out to her “Happy Easter”. She looked at me oddly and shouted back “That was yesterday”. It was then that I found out another tradition in Norway—-Easter dinner and related celebrations happen on Easter Eve.

It is odd, Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, but Norwegians celebrate it while the Lord is still in the tomb. Maybe that’s where the crime novels come into play.

 

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