{"id":22,"date":"2008-12-24T14:54:50","date_gmt":"2008-12-24T18:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=22"},"modified":"2008-12-24T14:54:50","modified_gmt":"2008-12-24T18:54:50","slug":"god-jul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/god-jul\/","title":{"rendered":"God jul!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again the Christmas season is upon us.\u00a0 Doesn’t it seem like it comes faster and faster every year?\u00a0 “Christmas” in Norwegian is jul<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 Merry Christmas-god jul.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>We give gaver<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0(gifts) at Christmastime, which sit under juletreet<\/span><\/strong> (the Christmas tree).\u00a0 Vi pynter juletreet <\/span><\/strong>(We decorate the Christmas tree). \u00a0<\/strong>T<\/span>here is ofte <\/strong>a stjerne<\/span><\/strong> at the top of treet<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 We eat loads yummy dessert<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 Now that you have a few terms down, I’ll tell you a little about\u00a0jul<\/span><\/strong> in Norway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Norway<\/span> did not adopt Christianity as a national religion until the end of the first millennium.\u00a0\u00a0 Olaf Trygvasson (the man for whom St. Olaf College is named after), king of Norway from 995 to 1000AD, converted the Vikings to Christianity.\u00a0 Previously, like all early developed countries, Norwegians had practiced what are now considered to be heathen traditions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, many traditions that Christians practice today come from heathen customs.\u00a0 Many of us today decorate our homes inside and out with evergreen trees, wreaths, balsam firs, mistletoe, etc.\u00a0 Hundreds of years ago these items were believed to keep witches, evil spirits, and sickness\u00a0away.\u00a0 Another belief was that darkness and winter were a result of the sun god growing weak and so the winter solstice was a time to celebrate the sun getting stronger and the coming of life again.\u00a0 Large feasts were eaten in celebration of the coming farming season.<\/span>\ufffd<\/span><\/p>\n

Isn’t it amazing that\u00a0Christians and many non-Christians alike\u00a0still practice generally the same traditions that were considered to be pagan hundreds of years ago?\u00a0 Most of the traditions that Americans celebrate are similar to those that Norwegians celebrate.\u00a0 The Norwegian santa is called nisse<\/span><\/strong>, a mythical Norwegian creature who was thought to protect farmers from misfortune.\u00a0 Nisse<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0is a small elderly man-like creature, unlike the large American Santa.\u00a0 Instead of milk and cookies, Norwegians leave out porridge with perhaps raisins and nuts for the nisse.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

God jul alle sammen!\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>Make sure to leave treats out for nisse <\/span><\/strong>or Santa!\u00a0 Enjoy all of the yummy mat <\/strong>and all the gaver <\/strong>you give and receive!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once again the Christmas season is upon us.\u00a0 Doesn’t it seem like it comes faster and faster every year?\u00a0 “Christmas” in Norwegian is jul.\u00a0 Merry Christmas-god jul.\u00a0 We give gaver\u00a0(gifts) at Christmastime, which sit under juletreet (the Christmas tree).\u00a0 Vi pynter juletreet (We decorate the Christmas tree). \u00a0There is ofte a stjerne at the top…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","category-holidays","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}