Deadly rivalry

No, not really. But neighbors Sweden and Norway do make each other the butt of jokes so much that a startling number of their children really do believe the other country is mentally impaired. And they do have a prickly rivalry, made worse by upstart Norway becoming so rich and successful.

Where sports are concerned the one-upmanship rapidly reaches ludicrous proportions, but no occasion is too small to consider a poke in the other’s direction.

When I was reading the articles about Norway’s penchant for bloodthirsty literary thrills at Easter,

Easter memories

On the subject of the extended Norwegian Easter hols, a couple of today’s news headlines brought back my own nightmare version of a traditional Easter ‘break’, and reinforces my preference for being one of the quiet celebration at home segment.

Not quite murder and skiing, but medical mayhem. And skiing in my case, though not the headlines.

“Woke up without nipples” screams

Hard facts

It suddenly occurred to me that Norway is not all sunshine and MURDER during the Easter holiday. It also occurred to me that it isn’t easy to even get the basics of the Easter holiday across here – it is huge, with kids having the next week completely free from school and the nation knocking off from ‘Maundy Thursday’ through Easter Monday, a guaranteed five day break that most people add to by taking most or all of this coming week off as well.

And then there are the nuts.

That time of year

Norwegians love a good holiday, and Easter is a classic. Since the school break is quite long, families tend to take a few extra days off and make a real occasion of it. The timing is usually appropriate weather-wise, and the traditional approach is to pack the skis, head to a mountain cabin, and have an outdoorsy week of simple pleasures; sun, snow, exercise. A roaring fireplace.

Easter in Norway. (Photo: MRTN/Creative Commons)

And plenty of murder.