After Scandinavian Christmas Traditions and Finnish Christmas facts, I am continuing this series with Norway!
Watching Czech Cinderella
An iconic Christmas movie In Norway is actually Czech, from 1973: 3 nøtter til Askepott (3 wishes for Cinderella), broadcasted on Christmas eve in Norway since 1996 – Norwegians made a remake in 2021 though. Another popular Christmas movie in Norway is Reisen til Julestjernen (journey to the Christmas Star), a Norwegian production from 1976, in which a princess disappears to look for the Christmas Star…
‘Going Yule goat’ or Christmas trick-or-treating
In the period of Romjul, between Christmas and New Year, some Norwegian children go around with a Nisselue (Santa hat), with red cheeks and freckles painted on their face, or as angels, shepherds and other Christmas figures, singing Christmas Carols from door to door, in exchange for sweets. This is called å gå julebukk – to go Yule Goat..a sort of christmasy halloween. According to the Store Norske Leksikon it 14% of interviewed Norwegians or their children was going julebukk in 2017.
Baking 7 cookies
Some Norwegians bake the ‘Seven types’ – 7 different type of cookies, de Syv slag in Norwegian. Baking seven different types of cookies is a tradition that exists also in Sweden. There is no fixed list, but the classical types are Sandkaker, Pepperkaker (gingerbread cookies), Fattigmann ‘poor man’, Goro from Danish god raad, one of the oldest types from the 1800s- made with an iron press with patterns – Krumkaker, Berlinerkranser, Serinakaker.
Kransekake, kokosmakroner, sirupsnipper, sandnøtter and smultringer are also popular to be included in the syv slag according to godt.no.
Scandinavian Embassy‘s bakery and cafe in Amsterdam zuid
On a trip to Amsterdam, I decided to test Scandinavian Embassy and both of its two locations, starting with the bakery in europaplein. The two locations are in Amsterdam zuid: Saphatipark and Europaplein: in the former, a more central location, you can sit but it has fewer items than the bakery in Europaplein. The bakery,…
An introduction to Estonian: sister language of Finnish
Estonian is a Finnic language, sharing many similarities with its ‘bigger’ sister Finnish, while being unrelated to all their bigger language neighbours
Scandinavian carnival buns (and where to eat them in the Netherlands)
Cream buns are enjoyed in Nordic and Baltic countries during shrovetide, between January and February. Sweden’s classic semla has almond paste, while other countries variations include jam, vanilla cream, and chocolate icing top.
a Polyglot illustrating Scandinavia 
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