edda-for-dummies:

trollkatt:

edda-for-dummies:

You all probably know the idea of an advent calendar, I don’t have to explain it to you. So I was thinking that it might be a fun way to provide content for December and to showcase a some old and new Nordic holiday traditions to make a little Nordic “julkalender” for you all.

The contents would definitely not be strictly Viking Age-centric, because the modern jul/jól/joulu or Nordic Christmas is a fusion of so many different historical traditions. I think it would be a disservice to the culture to try to strip centuries of history away just to make hazy speculations of a possible feast culture in a time we can’t reach in any relatively thorough way. I want to include both pagan, catholic christo-pagan and protestant christian traditions, because they’re all pretty tightly intervowen at this point.

I think it might still be interesting for you to get some little “fun facts” about the holiday season up here as it is today. And to be fair, I think it might even be GOOD for some of you, if you’re foreign, to learn about the differences with winter up here and out there! 😉

My focus would be most on Finnish and Swedish traditions, because those are the ones I know best, but there are some traditions from other Nordic and even Baltic countries I want to give a nod to.

Let me know if you’re interested! The julkalender posts would be little illustrations with a few short paragraphs of description of mentioned tradition. Also, if you’re Nordic, feel free to drop me your favourite tradition to be featured!

Lussi, of course! I made a couple of posts last year. One on the 12th and one on the 13th. Lussi is what initiates the month of jul to me. I also grew up with mumming (gå julebukk) during Boxing-week (romjula, i.e. mellandagarna) back home in Norway. Not sure there is much about it on the ‘net, because people don’t do it anymore. Alas… 😦 On the western coast of Norway they have a more Christian mumming tradition called stjernespill, where the mummers are called star boys (stjernegutter). This is a really old tradition, with its beginning way back in Early Christianity, and it used to be found many places in Europe (maybe still is some places?) – and I see now they are also found in in Finland as tiernapojat!

Lucia festivities are definitely on the list! Huge thanks for letting me know that there’s a stjärngossar/tiernapojat corresponding tradition in Norway too!

I’ll probably try to fit something about the julspel/songs/traditions focused around
horses

on Staffansdag/Tapaninpäivä (St Stephen’s) or Boxing day because that’s been a big thing in Finland and Sweden, but I might give the star boys their own day as well!

Also thanks to other repliers – goats, definitely, will be featured on at least two or three separate days, because there’s a lot about them 😀