Norwegians don’t like to stand out or be different. They take great pride in following traditions and fitting in. Some traditions aren’t even understood - people just do them because everyone else does. Easter includes some of the strangest traditions I’ve seen.
The week before Easter, all schools are closed and many people take that week off. Even stores are only open a few hours each day, and not at all on Thursday or Friday before Easter, or the Monday after, which are holidays.
About 40% of Norwegians own a cabin, so that’s where they head for Easter break. The other 60% join them. It’s a sure bet there is snow in the mountains, so much cross country skiing is done that week. To keep with Easter traditions, everyone out hiking or skiing absolutely MUST have two food items along with them every day – an orange and Norway’s version of the Kit Kat bar, called a Kwik Lunsj, (pronounced “quick lunch.”) There are big sales on oranges and Kwik Lunsj prior to Easter and people buy them by the cart full. That’s basically what they eat all week.
For the last hundred years or so, there has also been the tradition of reading crime novels. I still haven’t figured out how crime novels have worked into the Easter traditions of Norway, but the entire country devours one after another during that week – and at no other time during the year. The books stores go crazy with promoting all the new novels that get released just for Easter.
One of the weirdest “traditions” about Easter in Norway, however, is that many churches are actually CLOSED on Easter Sunday because so many people have gone up to the mountains. When we lived in Norway, we dressed in our finest Easter attire and made sure to arrive early to get a good seat, knowing how churches in America see a spike in attendance at Easter and Christmas, but we were totally shocked to find the church doors locked and no one around. We went down the street to another church, confounded by the mystery of it all, and discovered very few people in attendance and no one dressed in frilly dresses or their finest suits.
After church, as I was preparing our big Easter dinner, I saw a neighbor girl riding her bike, so I hollered out to her “Happy Easter!” She looked at me rather oddly and shouted back, “That was yesterday!” It was then I found out another tradition in Norway - Easter dinner and related celebrations happen on Easter Eve.
It’s odd that Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, but Norwegians celebrate it while he’s still in the grave. Maybe that’s where the crime novels come into play.
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