Christmas is nearly here – for Norwegians, that means being gathered around a table in front of an open fireplace eating steaming hot bowls of porridge.
For us Norwegians, the core of Christmas is rooted in rich traditions; everything needs to be done more of less the same way every year. A lot of these traditions are from a past when most Norwegians lived on farms and didn’t have a lot of money. Thus, they ate lots of fatty meals to make it through the winter.
The Christmas Porridge is such a meal, and these days, it is usually eaten on Christmas Eve or on the 23rd of December, affectionately known as “little Christmas Eve” in Norway. This traditional meal is easy to remember because it is, in itself, steeped in tradition.
When Norwegians lived on farms, they took a portion of their porridge and placed it in a wooden bowl covered in sugar and cinnamon. This bowl was placed on their doorsteps or in their barns as an offering to their nisse (roughly translated as “house gnome”). The purpose was to ensure that their local nisse wouldn’t act up and let out a cow, tie the cat’s tail in a knot and would generally behave nicely. These nisse were thought to be magical protectors of the farm and the animals but needed to be fed well in order to stay benevolent.
These days, the nisse survives as part of the traditional Norwegian Christmas decorations, a recurring theme in Christmas serials on TV and as part of oral tradition. We no longer place our porridge outside, but one tradition has remained: we’ll place an almond in the porridge and whoever gets the almond in their portion is typically rewarded. This particular tradition is shrouded in mystery, but historians think it could be related to an old Nordic game called Kong Bønne (“King Bean”).
Norwegians no longer need fatty foods to make it through the winter, but we are sticklers for tradition none the less. We love our Christmas Porridge with sugar, cinnamon, melted butter and almond(s), and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. If you’re ever able to partake in this tradition whilst in Norway, you should accept and count yourself lucky – you just experienced one of the most Norwegian traditions. And if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll even be treated to a story about how a nisse tied the cat’s tail in a knot?
Such a charming glimpse into Norwegian Christmas traditions! The story of the nisse and the almond in the porridge adds so much warmth and magic to the season. It’s wonderful how these traditions connect the past to the present. Telkom University Jakarta