{"id":87,"date":"2009-05-29T13:30:20","date_gmt":"2009-05-29T17:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=87"},"modified":"2009-05-29T13:30:20","modified_gmt":"2009-05-29T17:30:20","slug":"how-do-norwegians-tie-the-knot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/how-do-norwegians-tie-the-knot\/","title":{"rendered":"How do Norwegians tie the knot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Et bryllup.\u00a0 <\/strong>They have et bryllup <\/strong>(a wedding).\u00a0 Today Norwegian weddings look very similar to weddings in the U.S. and other European countries.\u00a0 However, historically, Norwegian weddings were much more ceremonial and traditional.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First of all, all brides and grooms would wear bunads-<\/strong>traditional Norwegian costumes.\u00a0 Men wore white silk shirts, dark wool stockings and knickers that came up to the calf, and a matching vest and dark wool topcoat.\u00a0 Women wore a white silk shirt with either a very intricately woven dark wool dress (with embroidery) or a similar skirt.\u00a0 Then some added financial and meaningful value was added with silver jewelry (both on her body and on the actually dress) and a gold\/silver crown, either passed down through the family or loaned from the local church.\u00a0 It was thought that when the bride moved her head, the tinkering noise the crown made would ward off evil spirits.\u00a0 At the reception, the bride was to dance until her crown fell off.<\/p>\n

Weddings typically used to last several days.\u00a0 There was of course a church ceremony and then several days of festivities.\u00a0 The first day was the bride’s day, which included a procession to and from the church, followed by a long night of dinner and drinking.\u00a0 Typical food at a Norwegian wedding could include smoked salmon with dill and rye bread, herring, potatoes,vodka, and\u00a0akevitt.<\/strong>\u00a0 There was and usually still is always a kransekake<\/strong>, a layered almond ring cake with frosting.\u00a0 Similar to many Christian weddings, the bride and groom get to keep the top of the cake, while the guests enjoy the rest.\u00a0 The second day was much less formal with family and friends together eating a porridge dinner.\u00a0 There were many toasts (sk\u00e5l’s<\/strong>) and gifts given this day by the guests.\u00a0 The third day meant to bid the couple farewell on their journey of marriage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the morning after all the festivities, it was common for the groom to give the bride a morgengave <\/strong>(literally morning gift), which was supposed to be valuable enough that the bride could sell it to support\u00a0herself for many years if something happened to the groom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, Norwegian weddings share some similarities with Norwegian weddings of the past, but they look much more similar to typical American weddings.\u00a0 The groom usually wears a black tux and the bride a white gown.\u00a0 There are many couples who choose not to be married in a church.\u00a0 It’s quite common for a couple to have their own children in the wedding.\u00a0 There are simply many more types of families today and Norway being the extremely liberal country that it is, one will find that it is more and more common for couples to not even get married, but live together and have children.\u00a0 I will write more about this trend in a later post, but I wanted to give you all an idea of what Norwegian weddings were like historically and how they have changed over the years.\ufffd<\/p>\n

Oh I did forget one thing.\u00a0 The fele <\/strong>-the fiddle is still an important part of Norwegian weddings today, as it always was in the past.\u00a0 In fact, my dad and my stepmother got married a few years ago and they had a very talented and well known fiddle player play at the wedding!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Et bryllup.\u00a0 They have et bryllup (a wedding).\u00a0 Today Norwegian weddings look very similar to weddings in the U.S. and other European countries.\u00a0 However, historically, Norwegian weddings were much more ceremonial and traditional.\u00a0 First of all, all brides and grooms would wear bunads-traditional Norwegian costumes.\u00a0 Men wore white silk shirts, dark wool stockings and knickers…<\/p>\n

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