ICELANDIC WINTER TRADITIONS

Þorrablót and the month of Þorri 25 January-23 February

In pre-Christian times Icelanders would celebrate Þorri with a great mid-winter feast named Þorrablót, in honour of the Nordic god of thunder, Þór. The tradition was lost soon after Icelanders converted to Christianity. Some of the dishes served on Þorri is fermented shark, scorched sheep-heads, sour, whey-pickled ram's testicles, and jellied meat of lamb.

5 March

The Icelandic tradition holds the custom to eat soup made from lentils and vegetables accompanied with salted meat, a dish called “saltkjöt og baunir” in Icelandic. As this is the last day before Lent, people would use the opportunity and eat their fill, many to the brink of bursting, hence the name.

Wednesday) 6 March

4 March

Young children will often create colourful wands with which they’ll smack their parent’s bottom while crying “bolla, bolla, bolla!” (“bun, bun, bun”). The parent is then expected to reward the child with a bun.

Öskudagur marks the first day of Lent in Western Christianity. The Icelandic tradition is : Young women would try and pin little bags filled with ashes onto the back of the boy they fancied without the subject of their infatuation noticing. Young men would try and do the same, but with pouches filled with pebbles. In later years Öskudagur has to some extent become more like Halloween.

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