10 December 2007
In the weeks leading up to Christmas there are many events and traditions in Norway, just
as in most countries in Europe and beyond. Here, many of them centre around children, and
singing.
Please contact us if you have questions or comments.
HOME PAGE |
|
Schools and barnehager (nurseries), plus families at home are busy baking cakes and biscuits,
with many making houses made of ginger-bread "pepperkakehuser" and entering
competitions for the best. You can then see all the entries collected together in "towns".
In Stavanger, the newspaper
Stavanger Aftenblad
runs a competition and the town can be seen in
the Arcaden shopping centre in the centre of town.
Another popular competion is for Christmas pictures made by children. The entries to this will be
shown in the Children's Museum in the
Stavanger Kulturhuset from
15 December.
In Egersund there is a
great Christmas market each year, and we are
hoping that next year - 2008 -
there will be something similar in Stavanger, organised by
Byen.
13th December sees processions and church services for
Santa Lucia. Saint Lucy was a third
century martyr celebrated by the catholic and authodox churches, plus protestant Scandinavia.
The festival goes back many centuries to when 13 December was the shortest day - winter solstice -
of the Julian
calender - and celebrates that the days will soon be getting longer again.
|
