Did the Vikings Celebrate Halloween?
In an early-eleventh-century poem, an Icelandic traveller describes being turned away from a farmhouse on a journey towards Sweden.
Before the Pumpkin: The History of the Turnip Lantern
The turnip at the National Museum of Ireland is made of plaster. Its carved face is the work of a museum artist, based on a lantern remembered from County Donegal.
The Ghosts With Unfinished Business: Scandinavia’s Restless Dead
In a Norwegian story recorded in 1909, Sterke Nils watched a man struggle up through the waters of Svartetjørn in Telemark.
The Draugr: When the Dead Refused to Stay Buried
When neighbours opened Þórólfr Halt-Foot’s grave, they found a corpse that had neither decayed nor become any easier to move.
How Halloween Found Its Way to Norway
In 1993, the brothers Espen and Henning Hagerup were translating a Donald Duck story when they encountered a problem: what should Norwegian children say in place of “trick or treat”?
Candlelight for the Dead: All Saints’ Weekend Across the Nordic Countries
At Huddinge Church, south of Stockholm, a memorial service scheduled for Saturday, October 31, will include the names of parish members who have died during the past year.
Pumpkins in Copenhagen: How Denmark Embraced Halloween
For Halloween 2026, Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens is advertising more than 20,000 pumpkins.
The Huldra: The Beautiful Stranger in the Norwegian Forest
In a legend published by the Norwegian collector Andreas Faye in 1833, a beautiful stranger arrives at a dance.
Three Nordic Ghost Stories to Tell on Halloween Night
In a Norwegian folktale, a bridegroom has promised his closest friend a place at his wedding. There is one complication: his friend is dead.
Nøkken: The Terrifying Spirit of Nordic Lakes and Rivers
In a legend published in 1844, a priest is travelling with four sturdy men when they reach Sundfossen in Gjerrestad, southern Norway.
Iceland’s Other Costume Day: When Children Sing for Candy
At Smáralind shopping centre in Kópavogur, children were invited to arrive in costume on February 18, 2026, and sing to shop staff for candy.
Fastelavn: Denmark’s Costume Holiday That Isn’t Halloween
In the 1940s, children gathered in the courtyard of a workers’ housing association in Vejle, Denmark, for Fastelavn barrel striking.
Kekri: When Finland’s Farming Year Came to an End
“Köyriä vai uunia?” — “Kekri or the stove?” That was the question visitors might put to a farm household in the Kuopio countryside when the autumn festival came around. According to a local recollection collected in 1936, they expected food or drink and threatened a broken stove if their hosts refused.
Why Sweden’s Cemeteries Glow with Candles on All Saints’ Day
In the late nineteenth century, when candles began appearing on graves in some Swedish towns, they were more likely to be lit at Christmas than in November. Some of the recorded examples were at children’s graves.
The Mara: The Nordic Creature Behind Your Nightmares
In the medieval Icelandic Ynglinga saga, King Vanlandi has been asleep only a short time when he cries out that a mara is treading on him.
How Halloween Took Hold in the Nordic Countries
On November 1, 1992, the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported on costumed children carving pumpkins at a restaurant in Hellerup, outside Copenhagen.