Wow – there are so many blog posts to write this month! Had to include this short one. We didn’t know about this celebration until today. Fastelavn is celebrated 7 weeks before Easter Sunday or the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. I think it’s a bigger celebration in Denmark (judging from the web hits you get when you search) but there are a couple of things Norwegians do on this day.
1) They eat Fastelavnsbolle. Its a typical Norwegian boller (sweet roll) covered with icing sugar and filled with whipped cream and perhaps some jam!
2) Another popular custom (especially among the children) is the “Fastelavnsris”, with which children ritually flog their parents with a bunch of twigs decorated in feathers to wake them up on the morning of Fastelavns Sunday
Strange…but true!
2) Another popular custom (especially among the children) is the “Fastelavnsris”, with which children ritually flog their parents with a bunch of twigs decorated in feathers to wake them up on the morning of Fastelavns Sunday.
My parents never told me about the flogging, To me these twiggs has always been traditional decoration.
WOW they are in for it!
By: Christian on October 8, 2010
at 5:42 PM
Hey Christian – nice to connect with you. Now that sounds like a strange and painful tradition but one I’m sure kids enjoy…a lot! But love the fact your parents managed to convince you they were decorative…brilliant! I wonder how many other Norwegian parents try the same story.
By: Sarah on October 8, 2010
at 6:53 PM
Any update on the ritual flogging? I mean, any lasting harm at all?
By: devonseaglass on February 10, 2013
at 7:34 PM