Sometimes life takes you in extrodinay directions.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be sitting at a sewing machine making Samba costumes for a Samba Parade above the Arctic Circle in Norway.
I am currently production managing the world’s most northern Samba Parade.  This year we have incorporated many Brazilian parade traditions like [...]

Firstly, I’d like to say, how wonderful the UiT danseklubb performers were last night.  The dancers were beginner-amateurs of Swing and have only had a handful of Swing lessons before signing up to be performers.  Even though they weren’t professional dancers, the audience was none-the-wiser.

Being a trained/educated stage manager, I tend to have very high [...]

Turkeys aren’t native to Norway so it is peculiar to me that a roast turkey dinner for New Years Eve is a tradition.  (I guess if rice can become tradition, as in rice porridge, why not turkey too?)  All the normal Christmas trimmings are included (because at New Years, Christmas is only half over in [...]

Every juletid Oslo puts on a Christmas market by the docks out front of the Oslo Town Hall.  It is mainly for tourists but I’m sure there is an Odd Norwegian around, or two.

During the day the place looks like a construction site but at night the lights make it look like a fairy-tale land. [...]

I had the opportunity to be in Oslo the day Obama left.  I arrived early in the morning and when I reached the city the streets were filled with police and their automatic weapons.  They completely outnumbered the pedestrians.  It was hard to get around as the footpaths were still lined with steel fences.  There [...]

Decorating the whole house for Christmas is a big tradition in Norway.  It is certainly worth all the fuss as it not only creates a great atmosphere but your work will be up during the whole Christmas season – from December til mid-January.  (That’s better than displaying your artwork at most galleries!)  No table is [...]

You’d think that Christmas dinner is either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, however, in a land where juletid is recognised from December to January (thanks to the Vikings), Christmas dinner is an everyday occurrence.

The most popular Christmas dinners, lutefisk, pinnekjøtt, ribbe, julepølser and medisterkaker, are eaten throughout the whole of mørketid (dark time).  Norwegians [...]

Christmas Rib isn’t just for Christmas dinner but the whole Christmas season.  Likewise with the other traditional dishes lutefisk and pinnekjøtt.  Roast rib eating can start as early as November, in fact, you can buy rib all year round from the frozen section of the supermarket.  But fresh rib is typical for Christmas.

Norwegians have a [...]

‘Nisse’ is a Danish Viking word.  It replaced the Norwegian nyk during Danish rule from the 1500s.  To this day a direct translation of ‘nisse’ is still ‘goblin’, ‘gnome’ or ‘pixie’. (A post about the origin of ‘nisse’ and ‘yule’ will follow soon.)
Norwegians have a couple of different nisse traditions.  The considered original is the [...]

Sometimes English-speaking movie titles don’t translate well into Norwegian so the titlists have to get creative.  Sometimes they just don’t bother and other times they put in a little too much effort.  Here are some of the more common changes in titles:
Movie Title: The Pacifier
Norwegian Title: Opperasjon barnevakt
English Translation: Operation Babysitter
Movie Title: Enchanted
Norwegian Title: Eventyr [...]