Tag Archives: festival
Jólasveinar, the Icelandic Yule lads. Posted by hulda on Dec 12, 2012
What if there was no Santa Claus but thirteen trolls instead? What if your main task for the Christmas season was not to be good so that you’d get presents but to be good so that you might live through it? What if talk of the Christmas trolls was once officially banned due to their…
Happy anniversary, Icelandic! Posted by hulda on Nov 16, 2012
Today, on the 16th of November, Icelanders celebrate Dagur íslenskrar tungu, the Icelandic Language Day. Icelanders have celebrated their language since the year 1995. The date was chosen to coincide with the birthday of Jónas Hallgrímsson, an Icelandic poet often called “the most influential Icelandic poet of all times”. He was also a prominent figure…
The winter is here. Posted by hulda on Oct 27, 2012
Happy New Year to all of you who use the old Nordic calendar! Today’s the first day of Gormánuður (= the month of half-digested hay) which is the first month of winter, and at the same time the first month of the year. This is when in times of old animals were slaughtered for the…
A landslide, aurora borealis and more! Posted by hulda on Sep 22, 2012
My, what an interesting week it has been for Iceland. After the storm we’ve had earthquakes, the colour of leaves has changed almost overnight and the first aurora of the year was seen over Reykjavík on the 19. September. Topping it off today’s haustjafndægur (= equinox) which means that Ásatrúarfélagið (= Asatru Association) will be…
Menningarnótt: music, art and beer. Posted by hulda on Aug 19, 2012
Hulda reporting again from one of the many summer festivals in Iceland, the Menningarnótt (= Culture night). Despite the name it’s actually a whole day celebration starting out at 8 a.m. and continuing through the day and well into the night. Besides that I’m happy to announce that this is exactly the hundredth post published…
Sequins, confetti, our mayor in a pink dress… Posted by hulda on Aug 12, 2012
Yesterday was the annual Gay Pride Parade in Reykjavík and as you would guess it rained cats and dogs. As if that wasn’t bad enough it was windy as well, meaning that the rain was the typical horizontal Reykjavík rain against which you can’t really do much. Most people don’t usually even try to use…
National Dress Posted by sequoia on Jun 23, 2012
A little while ago, nearer to May Day, was National Dress Day (peysufatadagur). I had to wait to make this post because it took some time for people to start uploading all their photos and videos. Otherwise, this post is so late because I have my posts for this blog written and scheduled over a…