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How to Prepare for a Norwegian Easter
“So what do Norwegians usually do for Easter?” I ask my friend. “Usually we go to our cabin, go skiing and eat lots of eggs”. “Eggs? You mean chocolate eggs?” “No, regular eggs”. WTF. Like real eggs? Do they also eat real rabbits instead of the chocolate ones? These people take the whole Easter thing way too seriously. (Check it out: Norwegians ate 35 million eggs just over the Easter Holiday in 2011).
The truth is, as soon as Christmas is over Norwegians are only waiting for one thing: Easter holiday. The wait is long: 3 to 4 months until Påske, with the promise of nothing else than warmth and summer-feeling until September.
So, you are a foreigner, maybe you are Christian maybe you aren’t but in any case you’ll need more preparation than a few million eggs and reading about the religious reasons to celebrate Easter to be prepared to celebrate a Norwegian “Påske”. My first Easter holiday in Oslo I thought there would be big parties to celebrate all these bank holidays. Wrong and wrong. Easter is a family time and most people leave the city to their hytte. So Oslo is completely empty, almost as empty as during Christmas.
And like many things in Norway it’s not just about what you eat or what you do, it’s about the whole atmosphere. It needs to be “koselig” of course, which means it will involve family meals, evenings by the fire place, hikes, skiing trips in the woods (one last time before the Spring) and lots of sun.
You will also need:
– Oranges and Solo. Norwegians love eating lots of oranges during Easter because “oranges are the sun of Easter”, whatever that means. And Solo is the Norwegian Version of Fanta, the orange-taste soda.
– roast lamb (sååå koselig)
– crime novels or påskekrim. I just realised that’s probably why Jo Nesbø’s latest book just came out
– Kvikk lunsj: a chocolate bar that looks just like KitKat but doesn’t taste AT ALL like KitKat will the Norwegians say to you. Because Kvikk lunsj is part of everyone’s childhood and a symbol of Norwegian culture: the hike, the joy of being together, the chocolate as a reward.
The only thing is since it was created by Freia in the 1930’s, global capitalism hasn’t forgotten Norwegian hikers. Everything is still Norwegian in Kvikk Lunsj, except the company that owns Freia (Mondelez, ex-KRAFT Foods), the palmoil it contains, and the factory that makes it. All the rest (the buyers) are Norwegians, and they eat lots of it, especially during Easter (around 18 million bars…Crazy).
– Easter beer: Norwegians have their Christmas beer (juleøl), their summer beer (sommerøl) and of course their Easter beer (påskeøl). Very easy to recognise it usually has little yellow chickens on the can (oh no wait that’s a Danish one).
So what is the next event Norwegians wait for after Påske? It is the 17th of May. Not such a long wait, only a few weeks away before we can all dress in our bunads, eat bløtkake, drown ourselves in Cava and strawberries and remember how proud we are to be free Norwegians. And this year Norwegians are celebrating the 200 years of their Constitution Day, so it’s going to be a GREAT party!!
Comments
22 responses to “How to Prepare for a Norwegian Easter”
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whoever you are, I believe you’ve been living in Norway longer than me and I thank you because you use your blog how I’d like to do (but I’m afraid to do): explaining and talking about this culture. Thank you
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Super 🙂 non seulement ton anglais est à faire rougir tous les frenchies, mais en plus tu racontes super bien ce que l`on peut ressentir.. tous tes mots sont pleins de sens, admirable 🙂 continue, pleqse :))) tussen tak
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au fait, et on fait quoi pendant pâques quand tous les collegues norvegiens ont disparu ???
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On se trouve des amis qui n’ont pas de hytte et qui se font bronzer dans les parcs!
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7 eggs per person is a lot of eggs! We buy more at Easter from 1 /person to 2.
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God Påske!!! 🙂
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I really love to read your blog, as you usually nail it when it comes to us norwegian. I wish I knew french so I could read all your other post, but then again, you can’t have it all. Wish you lived near my town, then I could show you that not all norwegians need to be drunk to be chatty (yes, I talk to much).
God påske!!:-) -
Reblogged this on lifeofbree and commented:
As someone who lived in Norway at one point I appreciated this post by A Frog in the Fjord. Finding out that Norwegians consume 35 million eggs (real not chocolate) just over the Easter Holiday is one highlight of this post that provides insight into the culture. -
[…] Les resten her! […]
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COOL
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Allthough it may seem so, at least in the medias, the majority of norwegians does not go to their hytte for easter. Its more like 12% I’ve heard. Still all you hear in the medias is about hyttepåske.
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[…] norms they follow on regular days of the year. B during what they call “høytider”: Easter, 17th of May etc. there are even more traditions and […]
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A thing I expected to see here but didn’t: people, especially kids, paint on eggs to use as decoration! (Probably also another reason why we buy so many eggs!)
And then also that we decorate our homes with the colour yellow! Especially yellow candles 🙂
God påske! -
Nice entry. You got me on all points. I really enjoy reading your observations and experiences in Norway. It’s a fun read, and also educating. A little corection on that last part though; we celebrated our 200 years last year. (1814-2014). But it is still going to be fun 😀
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correction*
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lol – brilliant! 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Some Norwegians like to go away f easter – they actually spend that holy time f holyday’ing –
I myself like Alanya TRK . . . -
Jeg er litt såret på vegne av den stakkars kvikklunsjen <3
Aaaah kvikklunsj <3 #koselig #barndom -
[…] it is practical, so that we can bring our favorite food to mountain trips. I am waiting for the giant Easter tube with four ends: egg, Kvikklunsj, orange and blood (to have a taste of Jo Nesbø’s last krim […]
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[…] Als bronnen voor dit verhaal dienden verhalen op de volgende websites: http://www.tnp.no, http://www.mylittlenorway.com, http://www.thornews.com, http://www.norwegianarts.org.uk, http://www.thanksforthefood.com, http://www.visitnorway.com, http://www.lifeinnorway.net en http://www.afroginthefjord.com. […]
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[…] there, a Norwegian looks like a holiday lasting up to 11 days at Easter (see here for more about Easter in Norway). There will be even more opportunities for long weekends in May. In total there are 10 bank […]
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