Tag Archives: history
Ready, steady, rhyme! Posted by hulda on Nov 10, 2016
This blog post won’t have anything political in it. Instead I’m going to fill it with poetry and cute animals, because every now and then everyone needs at least a few moments of something calming, harmless and good in their lives. Besides, I believe that looking at pictures of cute animals is good for the…
Sons of Iceland. Posted by hulda on Jun 23, 2016
Football fever is at record heights right now, but along has come an interesting side feature: if Icelanders try to watch the games in any other language than Icelandic they immediately get a bit confused listening to the announcers. The foreign announcers don’t call the players by their own names! This is due to the…
Independently Icelandic. Posted by hulda on Jun 16, 2016
Guess what day tomorrow is? That’s right – Iceland celebrates its independence on the 17th June with Hæ Hó Jibbi Jei, það er kominn sautjándi Júní (= Hi Ho Yippee Yay, it’s come the 17th June), parades, bouncy castles and lots and lots of flags. I’ve already dug out my own 17th June kit well in…
The day of sailors. Posted by hulda on Jun 9, 2016
Last weekend we had Sjómannadagurinn, the day of sailors, and the harbor area was full of all kinds of sea-related activities. It’s held annually on the first Sunday of June unless Pentecost falls on that day: on those years it’s held on the second Sunday. It was first held on 6th June 1938 and since…
Four kinds of dreaming. Posted by hulda on May 26, 2016
In Icelandic fairy tale tradition dreams are given an especially important part in how they affect and shape people’s lives. In old stories and legends gods and elves visit people in the dreaming, explaining dreams has been a valued skill all the way from the settlement era and people have for a long time believed…
Icelandic national dress. Posted by hulda on May 19, 2016
Icelandic national dress, þjóðbúningur, has a long, long history and each of them is a work of art. Made of wool, richly embroidered and decorated with a great amount of jewellery the dresses are often family treasures, given to the next generation or borrowed for a relative for important occasions such as graduation or the Independence…
5 stubborn presidents of Iceland. Posted by hulda on Apr 21, 2016
The president of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, has been in the news this week a lot after he announced he would run again in the next elections. He’s already among the 20 longest ruling non-monarch national leaders currently in office so his decision has raised some eyebrows over here, especially since it came but a…