It begins with singing and dancing around the Christmas tree. This is a little awkward since most of us don't speak a lick of Icelandic and know none of the songs. This year, they included some more well-known favorites like Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
At some point in the dancing, the Jolasveinar show up to play tricks and make children laugh (or cry, depending . . .) They share candy treats and join us in the dancing and singing.
These two darlings were decked out in the Icelandic national costume. There are variations - I wore one for my mother-in-law the first year I was married, but I thought it was supposed to be tied like Swiss Miss and was soundly pounced on when I entered the room by little old Icelandic ladies letting me know in no uncertain words (mostly in Icelandic, so it went over my head) that I was wearing it all wrong. Let's let these darling girls carry on the tradition, shall we?
The best part - my boys are still not to old and cynical to join in the revelry.
4 comments:
we still do this in Iceland, dance around the christmas tree, drink hot chokolade and eat cakes, two or three of our thirteen yule-lads come and dance around the tree with the kids and hand out bags with candy or clementines and apples.
Greetings from Iceland Halla
I don't know if "dancing around the tree" is a Nordic thing to do. We always did it as kids. Often in a local church or school. There would be enough children and grownups to make several rings (we held hands and made circles around the tree), and each ring would alternate the direction they walked as we sang Christmas songs.
My mother told me she had been "dancing" around the tree all night, before I got born 2:30PM the 27th...
I noticed you have Icelandic flags on your tree. Another tradition, I have strings of Norwegian flags on mine.
Happy New Year to you!
I love the first comment :) What a wonderful tradition and sounds like you're having a wonderful holiday!
Yes, the Jólaball is a very rich tradition in Iceland. We do it in schools, kindergarden, play school, sport clubs and companies all over the country :)
This year the Jólasveinar gave out books at my daughters play school.
We have the same Icelandic costumes as those two girls are wearing in my family. Me and my sisters used to wear them when we were kids, I should scan some photos!
I enjoyed reading about your Jólaball! How did the hangikjöt and laufabrauð taste?
Gleðileg Jól!
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