Why Straw Ornaments Belong to Nordic Christmas
In 1936, Ilmari Mannermaa sent a group of straw Christmas ornaments from Kestilä, in northern Finland, to the Dictionary Foundation.
Pumpkins in Copenhagen: How Denmark Embraced Halloween
For Halloween 2026, Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens is advertising more than 20,000 pumpkins.
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.
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.
The Winter Candle
Before the candles could be dipped, everyone at Överby parsonage had work to do.
Edvard Ström spent part of his childhood there, on Sweden’s west coast, between 1814 and 1825. In recollections recorded late in the nineteenth century and published by Bohusläns Museum, he remembered the household twisting cotton and tow yarn into wicks while his aunt Anna Lisa prepared for candle making. A tall copper vessel was carried into the servants’ room, wrapped in blankets and mats to retain its heat, more than half-filled with boiling water and topped with melted tallow.
The History of Scandinavian Migration to the Canadian Prairies
Nearly five centuries before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic, another group of Europeans had already reached North America.
Around the year 1000 CE, Norse sailors from Greenland steered their longships west across the North Atlantic and landed on the northern tip of what is now Newfoundland. Led by Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, they established a small settlement that modern archaeology identifies as L'Anse aux Meadows.