Back in Norway

The Christmas Eve celebrations contrast my own experience in Australia, of opening presents on the morning of Christmas Day and eating the main meal at lunchtime. Personally, I do not understand the logic in celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve. After all, is it called an ‘Eve’, and therefore it is surely the day before something important, and not the day of it. I am not a religious person, but I remember during my first Christmas in Norway I grumbled that Baby Jesus would be mad at me for cheating by opening my presents early.

I once asked a Norwegian why they think Christmas Eve has the strongest focus here, and they replied that because Jesus is said to have been born at night (as we know from the shepherds following the star), perhaps the birth indeed took place on the night of Christmas Eve. However, this makes little sense because of what I said earlier about the Day and not the Eve being most important. Theory: fail.

When I asked my ever-insightful boyfriend his opinion on why Norwegians celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, he pointed out the pagan origins of Christmas. Jul (the Norwegian word for Christmas, and pronounced Yule) was celebrated in Europe long before anyone had ever heard of Christ, and it was in fact a celebration of winter solstice – the shortest day of the year, usually around December 21 – and the fact that only longer days are ahead. In fact, the Norwegian word hjul (also pronounced Yule) means wheel, and a wheel is the pagan symbol for the sun, underscoring the link to the solstice.
In the year 350, Pope Julius I decreed that the birth of Christ would be celebrated on December 25, and it is speculated that this decision was made to make the transition from paganism to Christianity easier. Historians believe the birth of Jesus was more likely to have been in September, or at least outside winter because the shepherds were unlikely to be tending their sheep on a winter’s night (and they would have been too busy shivering to follow a star). My boyfriend suggested that maybe Europeans wanted to celebrate Jul closer to the date of the solstice in accordance with pagan traditions, and therefore moved things forward to the night before. Unfortunately, I also find this a little illogical: after all, if Jul is a celebration of solstice and the fact that more daylight is on the way, doesn’t it make sense to celebrate in the daytime? My boyfriend’s response to that is that drinking, feasting and otherwise making merry – especially when done in Viking proportions! - is just plain more fun at night.

It remains a mystery, as I unfortunately was not able to uncover any information as to why some countries celebrate Christmas Eve while others celebrate Christmas Day. (Google: fail.) My personal theory is that one day, in a country where they did celebrate on Christmas Day, a group of clever children nagged their weary parents’ into letting them open their presents early. (Or equally clever adults made the change to avoid the children leaping onto their bed at 6am on Christmas Day squealing “Santa’s been, Santa’s been!”)

On the First Day of Christmas
Although I had thought the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” just used an imaginative structure, I was surprised to learn that the church does actually consider Christmas to have 12 days, starting with Christmas Day or Boxing and ending with Epiphany on January 5 or 6, which is when the Three Wise Men were said to have visited Jesus with gifts. I was even more surprised that Norwegians do actually refer to Christmas time in this way, calling it ‘the first day of Christmas’ rather than ‘Christmas day’. Even the posters advertising new movies for Boxing Day announced the release date as ‘the second day of Christmas’. It becomes a little confusing, however, when people start referring to later days: like when my boyfriend asked if I’d like to eat at his aunt’s on the fourth day of Christmas, and I looked at him blankly for a few moments while I tried to count in my head when that would be.

I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that celebrations do indeed continue on these later days of Christmas. Norwegians still keep on their Christmas lights, and television networks continue to broadcast Christmas movies. The main activity in the following days of Christmas is ‘visiting’ – going to relatives or close family friends for Christmas meals. For my boyfriend and I, we spent the first day of Christmas at home with my his immediate family and in the evening went to a party with his high school friends, while on the second and third days of Christmas we attended dinners with the relatives on his father’s side and then those on his mother’s side. Apparently the end of the 12th day of Christmas is the signal to take down all the Christmas decorations. Christmas is quite a formal occasion (men typically wear suits to Christmas gatherings) - so, for kids, playing outside in the street wouldn’t happen until the third day of Christmas at the earliest.
I think it is lovely that the Christmas celebrations continue beyond just one day. It’s opposite to my experience back home where I would feel a bit sad by the afternoon of Christmas Day because everything is over after all that anticipation. And with the focus in Norway on advent and the countdown to Christmas, I love that the celebrations last so much longer here!

A Final Thought...
While we’re on the topic, if the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” were true and a person did receive all those gifts each day (the French hens, turtledoves, partridges in pear trees, and... you know the drill), by the end of Christmas that person would have received 184 birds. I don’t know about you, but if my true love gave me that he would be getting a lump of coal for Christmas.