American Reacts to 10 Strange Norwegian Customs
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2022
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There is only so much you can learn about a foreign country without having specific details explained to you from someone who actually lives there. That is why I am very interested to react and learn about these 10 Norwegian concepts about culture, events, customs, and things in Norway that I have never heard about, from an American's perspective. If you enjoy my reaction feel free to leave a like, comment, or subscribe for more videos like this!
Here there were some errors and major exaggerations.
1. The joint holiday. It is NOT the case that everyone leaves and everything shuts down. People in Norway are very free to decide when they want to take their holiday. The public holiday is just a concept, a period of time during the school holidays where more people than average take their holiday. Shops, doctor's offices, factories, workshops, everything is open and accessible even though many are on holiday.
2. The NRK license no longer exists. NRK is now financed through taxes. The license was in a time when analogue TV signals were dominant and you were registered if you bought a radio or TV so that only those who owned a TV or radio paid to finance the state channel. After cable TV and the internet, it was seen that fewer and fewer people needed access to NRK and therefore no longer needed to pay for their licence. Therefore, the license was scrapped and NRK was financed instead through tax money.
3. Smalahovve is NOT a very widespread Christmas dinner with the exception of small areas in Western Norway, (Voss, Granvin, etc.) But even there pinnekjøtt, (ribs from lamb that have been salted, and sometimes also smoked, to preserve it) is by far the most preferred Christmas dinner. Smalahovve is a delicacy that is eaten mostly all year round if you have access to it. It originates from times when you couldn't afford to throw away any parts of the animal and used every part for different things, not just for food.
4. Weekend binge. She was mostly correct about that. We drink at the weekends and reserve the weekdays for work, education, family and everyday things. But when the weekend comes, we will drink the entire week's ration of alcohol in a few hours ;) So at least she knows her alcohol.
5. Grandiosa. If the Italians had seen this horrible creation of a dish and heard that we called it pizza they would have invaded us and wiped out the entire nation. Grandiosa is by far the worst frozen pizza ever created, including American frozen food, and I can't understand why people eat this disgusting piece of crap. It both tastes and feels like cardboard.
6. Vinmonopolet, a brilliant way to sell alcohol. State-run stores that sell alcohol that the state makes money from while being a BIG customer with a lot of bargaining power when purchasing from distillers and wine producers. This means that Vinmonopolet has one of the world's best selections and can obtain rare and special goods that few others are able to obtain.
7. Shops closed on Sundays. An absolutely brilliant idea which ensures that people do not have to work 7 days a week and at least get 1 day of rest. One of the very few good things that religion has ever done for Norway. If you are unable to buy what you need during the other 6 days, it is just a sign that you are bad at planning.
8. Melody Grand Prix. An incredibly bad idea. This is not a singing competition but a composer competition. Usually consisting of incredibly bad, bloated ballads that nobody would listen to if they weren't in MGP. This is more about the show, costumes and the competition than about the music. Norways main goal in this competition is not to win but to beat the Swedes.
9. The midnight sun. A natural phenomenon that comes from the earth's 23 degree tilt and rotation. This phenomenon can be experienced north of 72 degrees latitude. The price you pay for living in the kingdom of the midnight sun is that in winter the sun never rises for months at a time. This is also one of the things Norway is best known for.
10. Brown cheese. Came about by accident when someone, most likely a farmhand who was going to make goat's cheese, let the curd cook for too long so that the milk sugar caramelized and the cheese turned brown instead of yellow. In those days you couldn't afford to throw food away so it was eaten and became popular because the caramelization made the cheese taste very sweet.
And by the way, most Norwegians speak very good English. We start learning it very early in school, like 2nd or 3rd grade.
You saved me from writing a comment about grandiosa. Thanks. Cardboard flavoured pizza shouldn't be a thing.
You usually have the right to a 2 week continous leave during summer, and many companies will ask that you take a certain part of your vacation during that period.
Nr 8 is your opinion when it comes to what is good musikc or not. If it's so bad, why is it such a succes and every country want to participate?
There are a lot of work shops that are closed for three weeks in July
Midnight Sun would be north of 67 degrees north (90-23)
-"Americans don't eat organs"
- * *American Hotdog exits silently* *
Some common hotdog ingredients:
pig snout, stomach, cow lips, liver, goat gullets, lamb spleens, heart and kidney.
Thanks for writing this, cause I was thinking the same thing 😅
@@lillm6874 because*
Cause means something very different.
@@OriginalPuro I think most people understand what I mean 😉
It’s very often you use cause instead of because
@@OriginalPuro Actually, 'cause is a contraction, he just didn't (another contraction) add ' to show it, which a lot of people don't.
Same with a lot of ground meat in their hamburgers
When you said "oh christmas food, now you got my attention" and she starts to talk about smalahove😂
Fellesferien used to have a practical reason. Because we "all" used to be farmers, kids needed time off school to help at the farm. We also have a week off in the fall for the same reason. Now it's called "høstferie" but was formerly known as potato vacation - for harvesting before winter.
Shops closing on sundays is actually really important for families being able to have some qualitiy together on weekends. That way most people can make it to alot of birthdays, weddings, events and happenings. If some shops where allowed to be open on sundays, everyone would have to follov suit to compete. As a result, huge amount of people would be stuck at work in the weekends instead of having a good time together.
Sadly it's not the case for all of us, alot of people need to work alot of weekends. I work 50% of mine through the year.
I think the rationale behind it is, ppl need at least one day off
And it's hard to get drunk together on Saterdays (helgefylla), if you have to work on Sundays.
@@dilten69 So true😆
I agree that regulations forcing stores to close on Sundays, and ALSO close after 11 PM (23:00), it means stores don't have to all do it, or be at a competitive disadvantage, making for better, more regular working conditions for most people.
Actually seen someone strongly advocating for American stores, and kiosks being closed at night, because they saw everyone competing to please consumers at all hours of the day and night as a bit of an obsessives problem in America.
I like that most of the concepts americans struggle with are worker protection laws
I'm living south of Oslo and in the mid summer it's actually never getting dark, although the sun disappears for a few hours, it doesn't take lang before seeing it again.
The Midnight Sun: North of the Polar Circle the sun never sets for about a month in middle summer. On the other hand - during mid winter the sun never rises!
Søndags stengt is awesome.
It gives stores a day off, so employees can have the day off without worrying about losing business.
There was a union leader who said "If the kids can't get up to buy their beer by 3pm on saturday, they can live without till monday" and I honestly agree.
Nothing is so important from a strore that it can't wait.
There are pharmasies that are open 7 days a week, so there is no need not being met.
Some comments:
1. "Fellesferien", general staff holiday, is a period during summer where a lot of people DO take their vacation. But it is not at all a legal term, "fellesferien" is based on very old agreements between the unions and and the employers' associations and is most common in traditional industry, on building sites and so on. During these quiet summer weeks, thousands of students and pupils are employed to fill the gaps. Works just fine.
2. The NRK "fee" is removed. The old system of a TV receiver tax (the radio tax went away 50-60 years ago) to finance a non-commercial, independent quality public broadcaster was based on the BBC-scheme and shared with other countries. But the system became impossible to handle with new methods of receiving, and the "Norwegian BBC" is now financed on a parliamentary bill of law.
3. Some weird traditional food is found in all countries. Offal and head meat is of course used in the US as well. But in processed food like sausages, pressed ham, patês and so on :-)
4. Helgefylla. Yes, but not that bad. And people are getting more civilised, year by year.
5. Grandiosa, a very bland, cheap pizza. It came early to the marked some 40+ years ago and has become a symbol of the common man, mainly because of really clever ads. But most people do prefer the better brands.
6. Vinmonopolet was established after the failed Prohibition period to control and regulate selling of stronger alcohol. The same happened in Sweden an Finland. The reason was the rampant alcohol abuse back then, some 100 years ago. Mainly cheap, hard liquor. And in worked, with great health and social benefits. Today these shops are extremely well sorted and manned by very skilled people. And the shops are not allowed to put a premium price on sought after brands and vintages, so really good wine can be cheaper in Norway than in let’s say France. As a wine lover I say yes!
7. Many shops, like garden centres and so on are open. But yes, most large supermarkeds, malls and grocery stores are closed. Still you can buy food from many smaller shops with reduced staffing. Sunday is ment to be a day off for most people, especially low-paid staff who work very long hours during the week. My impression is the most Norwegians like the concept of one quiet, a bit different day during the week. And if this vlogger can’t plan for one day without shopping, she’s got a problem. Not the rest of us.
8. Eurovision. Just for fun, not taken seriously by anyone. Also turned into to major happening for the gay community.
9. Midnight sun is really not a Norwegian concept ;-) Blame it on the globe!
10. Brown cheese is technically not a cheese, it is caramelised whey. From cow or goat, maybe with added cream. An acquired taste, but I like it.
Not everyone is on holiday necessarily at the same time. But all norwegians have 5 weeks of paid holiday every year.
Most people takes at least 3 weeks off in the summer time.
Some bisnisses runs at reduced work force in the summer, like service companies like plumbers and carpenters, shops, ect. Some others shuts down for 4 weeks while everyone takes holiday.
Yeah it's the same in most Nordic countries. We have short summers so majority of people want to use their paid vacation days during summer. So many workplaces either run on low manpower, have to hire summer workers or just shut down for a while
As a healthcare worker, we even have reduced workforce during the summer vacation. Mainly because its hard to get nurses on a short contract. Adding students to cover the minumum capasity, and let the general nurse stab work overtime.
Well it is actually 4 weeks and 1 day by law, or 25 days. A week in "ferieloven" is from Monday through Saturday.
the paid leave is already earned over the last year.
it's just extra money withdrawn from work that they pay you in summer.
yea higely depens on the type of work beeing done there. grocery stores dont close down same with hotels and resturants but lots of other thing will either close completly or have a reduced amount of people working, some places will also have people getting a job there for the summer or part of the summer (normaly students etc) for a "summer job"
Sheep's head is eaten in many countries. It's about using everything on the animal. It's a regional dish, belonging to the west coast.
The holiday or “fellesferien” is basically this.
The law states that everyone has a right to take 3 week consecutive holiday within a 6 week time period between the last week of June and the second week of August. It doesn’t mean the country is “shut down” but in those weeks you can expect all places to run with approx 50% staff.
A reason to why the shop is closed on sundays is that we have short work weeks, we work in average 37.5h per week. I am pretty sure in the USA it is closer to 50 hours.
Also people from Norway that are older was a lot more religious so everyone wanted the sunday off to go to church. I think this is common for many european countries to,
Applies to the public sector, not necessarily the private sector
@@themetricsystem7967 true, I have longer in average 45-50h per week
No nothing to do with 37.5 week, UK also have everything open on Sundays but work 40 or less hours in the week. the reason shops are closed on Sundays in Norway and most other European countries is that the need for ALL people or as much as possible to make it possible for people to actually have a weekend and not having to work and miss out of family time. So it's in the law, to protect workers, to protect people.
@@truxton1000 what I meant just better explained...
The main reason is policy, you are not allowed to open any shop. Earlier, you had to close early also in weekdays - it was actually difficult to shpo if you had a full time job. Shops closed at 5!. it was a bigg discussion when they where allowed to keep open till 20:00! The reason is to make sure families and people in general have days and time off together. The evening work was in practise covered by young part time workers - students or pupils wanting to earn asome money. However, there is some businesses open - i.e. it is the day you sell the most food in restaurants, take-away etc.
the big shops closed on sundays is a fantastic idea, because it would encourage people to support small, local businesses, and it would give the people in the big shops a guaranteed day off.
Fellesferien is a concept in Norwegian law, "ferieloven" or the "holliday act". Every worker is required by law and employers are required to make sure their employees take 3 concecutive weeks of vacation between the 1st of June and 30th of September, with some exceptions.
From a Swedish perspective, these aren't that strange... except eating a sheep's head, including the eye... Well, that's a bit creepy. But yeah, we have surströmming so we can't call anyone out on weird food habits though.
1:32 Same in Sweden, here it's called "Industrisemester", it's the time when most people go on vacation, and a lot of places are closed (or have shorter opening hours) It's usually the time of the year when it's the warmest and sunniest in Scandinavia, and since we get so much darkness in the winter that time is very much cherished. Everyone gets 5 weeks of vacation (some get 6) and most take the majority of that time in the summer, but a lot also save a week or two to go abroad when during the coldest and darkest time of the year.
But of course you _can_ get a doctors appointment etc if you need it, it's not like the whole country literally shuts down, it just feels like it.
4:02 This was the case in Sweden too, up until 2018, when it instead became a Public service tax that everyone pays, no matter if you have a TV or not. NRK is the public service channel in Norway, in Sweden it's SVT, in the UK it's BBC, and in the US it's PBS, I think. The difference is the PBS is funded by donations instead. In Sweden this fee it's about 120 USD per year, but it's based on your income, so for instance if you're a senior citizen you pay 43 USD per year instead. It's not just to get these channels, everyone gets those, it's something you have to pay even if you don't watch them at all.
6:15 Out of those we just have "lutefisk" (or we call it lutfisk) and "ribbe" (we call it revbensspjäll) for Christmas. But lutfisk getting more an more uncommon, because very few people under the age of...80 likes it. It's just traditional. My guess is that it will be gone in like 10 years from now. In Sweden we eat christmas ham, meatballs, creamy potato and fish gratin, pickled herring (not surströmming!), ribs, graved salmon, small sausages and beet salad to name a few of the Christmas foods.
8:02 Yeah, this is basically the same in Sweden. A lot of people party hard on the weekends.
9:03 This is different from Sweden. Of course we have frozen pizza in Sweden too, we have that brand here too, but it isn't extremely popular as it is in Norway, we rather order pizza, or make our own. Frozen pizza is more like something you have in your freezer for "just in case" situations, like if you're super hungry in the middle of the night when everything is closed.
10:28 Yeah, she's right, it's called Systembolaget here. It's not for "specialty" alcohol, it's for all alcohol, except the non-strong beers.
11:50 Here Sweden and Norway differs. Most shops are open on Sundays here (except Systembolaget).
13:46 Same in Sweden, it's called Melodifestivalen here. And it's a huge event. It's the Swedish selection show for "Eurovision Song Contest". Eurovision Song Contest has been going on since the 1950s and a completely different thing than "American Idol" etc, it's much much bigger and totally different. It has like 180-200 million viewers every year (in comparison, the most viewed superbowl, in 2014, had 114 million viewers) You should really check out some Eurovision content, it's a lot of fun!
15:05 Yes, we also have midnattsol, midnight sun, in the north of Sweden in the summers. It's definitely real. The sun doesn't go down in the summers, and doesn't rise in the winters. You should check out some of Jonna Jinton's videos, like for instance "Living with the Dark Winters in Sweden | Midnight sun & Polar night".
16:10 We have that in Sweden too, called "Mesost", but it's not as popular as in Norway.
The Jonna Jinton videos are so beautiful.
You shy away from eating an eye, but eat rotten fish like it's the most normal thing in the world...
@@KjetilBalstad I'd say it's a rather small minority that eat surströmming, I'm not one of them... (BTW, fermented, not rotten - and yes, there's a difference between the two)
@@michaeltempsch5282 Yes, just like "nobody" in Norway actually eat Sheep's head, and fewer yet eat the eyes... ;)
As for the NRK lisens (In order to own a television, you used to need a license, it was changed not long ago to be included in taxes instead (cheaper now) it pays for the state owned channels (news, folk programs etc)
Pays for the leftist propaganda that`s for sure.
Det er jo vanlig i mange land da.
I live in the Arctic, so as a kid I was so confused of the concept of the sun setting in summertime like how would that even work. In return the sun never rises in winter, though the northern lights are beautiful.
you and your channel is really wholesome i enjoy them a lot as a Norwegian this is really cute :-)
Haha, joker versus walmart, that would be a nice comparison video 😂
You can't get Northern light and Midnight sun during the same visit to Norway, unless you stay for almost a year since it's opposite of the year from each other, when you can see the northern lights, you barely see sunlight (you can't see the sun, but you will get a couple of hours of sunlight).
Regarding the vacation, it's actually quite normal for europe, since in Europe it's mandatory 20 days paid vacation each year, some countries have more, like Norway, Sweden, UK, and some other countries that have 23- 28 days of paid vacation (...what positive impacts unions have had on the work/ life balance)
In the northermost part of Norway, Finnmark, you do not get much sunlight in the middle of the winter. In the TV series "Jul i Blåfjell" they use the term "blåtimen" (the blue hour). That it how much light you get in the middle of the day around Christmas time in Finnmark. If the weather is nice in January you actually can recognize that the light gets brighter from one day to another until the sun is back in the end of the month. The whole periode of "mørketiden" (the dark season) is two months in Finnmark, and the farther south you get, the shorter the periode is. On Svalbard they have nearly four months of "mørketid". To experience midnight sun og "mørketid" you have to travel north of the Arctic circle.
Eurovision is not a singing competition, but a continent-wide *song* competition between a lot of countries in Europe (+australia). It is a BIG thing. It's a mini-Olympics all about songs and performance.
I think Geography Now made a nice little video on it that is simple enough to get introduced to it (with small errors).
Norway has had 3 wins in Eurovision and often at least scores decently high. I think about 40 countries compete at this point.
Another part of Norwegian culture is its national day. It is on the 17th of May and on that day almost everyone celebrates. In Oslo, there is this huge parade made up of basically every primary school that marches to the castle in the city. There they get to wave at the King and the other monarchs and some of the oldest kids (around 12 years old) have these huge flags that they angle to point toward the royal family. A lot of people wear their national costume that day, the Norwegian one being wool Bunad, a costume that changes based on where in Norway it comes from.
+ Israel.
@@Lubben oh yes, and Israel
Most Europeans have a 2 week holiday between June and September. The Italian part of me died when she spoke of "pizza", the Grandiosa 🙈
I'm not Italian, but you're so right. Grandiosa is everything but Pizza *lol* Nothing could be further away from a Pizza than Grandiosa is. Except the shape *lol*
Eurovision song contest, Greece is infamous for regularly giving twelve points to Cyprus and receiving twelve points from Cyprus. This exchange of twelve points may be influenced by close cultural ties. The UK actually came second this year behind, possibly, surprise surprise, Ukraine, good song though which helped, they deserve some good fortune.
Several of the best-selling music artists in the world have competed in past editions, including ABBA, Celine Dion, Julio Iglesias, Cliff Richard and Olivia Newton-John, and some of the world's best-selling singles have received their first international performance on the Eurovision stage.
Last Eurovision was a bad batch though....
...Sweden placed Higher than Norway...
I took all my vacation in the summer this year. 5 weeks of motorcycle riding in the mountains, relaxing in the cabin in the forests of Finnskogen, bathing in the lakes, fishing, hiking, finishing some projects and learning new skills. It's great for your mental health and personal development.
"Shopping on sundays", government has a law that sundays is the "day off" for people, like a resting day by law. And its true about the sun never going down, i live in a place like this, 01:00 AM you have the sun still up.
midnattsol (midnightsun) ja. i live in trøndelag so its not *as* bad here, but since the midnighsun shines beyond the polarcircle even here the sun doesnt fully set.
A comment on Søndagsstengt. The idea behind it, is that on Sundays, people are supposed to be off work. If i remember correctly, the Norwegian Labour party introduced it to protect the workers from having to work on weekends. The larger shops will need many workers to be open, as the smaller shops will need fewer. You can buy the necessities like bread and milk in the smaller shops. It is not a problem, because most of what you need at home aren't critical and can wait til Monday (in my opinion).
I agree. In Germany sunday is day of rest too
Norway has a specific law about vacation.
That law defines 25 working days as a legal minimum for employes to get off.
Fellesferien is a period between july and september where it is mandatory to take out 15 days vakation. A lot of companies choose to shut down completely for 3-4 working weeks.
As it is mandatory for the employer to make sure the employes who may not know their own interest well enough to maybe think of it on their own.
NRK lisens is on its way out as it is now a part of our taxes. It used to be a licencing fee to pay for government channels as soon as you have a TV.
Oh and smalahove is so good.
I have seen your vlogs and you are curious and you understand us Norwegians and you have to come and visit us. I'm convinced you'll never leave our country.
About the holiday in July, it's about the same in Sweden. Most people have at least 3 weeks off from work in July (we have at least 5 weeks paid vacation every year, but many saves some days/weeks for christmas and other times). With that being said, not exactly everyone can have time off all at once. There still have to be people working with public transport, at hospitals, in grocery stores and so on. But, there is also a lot of students that have summer holidays that work during the summer to get some extra money and thanks to that, many of the "original workers" can get their summer holiday.
NRK Lisens is not just to get access to the state Radio channels but also TV channels, but other than that, your description is accurate
Great video, it's so strange to see that you are so surprised over some of the things we take for granted, I really feel your enthusiasm and interest in these themes. I’m a bit surprised, even though I have heard about it several times in the past, that you don’t learn much about foreign countries in school, strange 😊
Every worker in Norway has five weeks paid vacation, six weeks if you’re over 60 years old jokingly called senile week.
Of course it’s not like the whole country shut down but there are some business that shut down , mostly none essential businesses.
The reeason for closing shops on sundays is partly due to tradition but mostly because of the strong workers organitations.
Dear American. I sometimes wonder what they teach you in school. The globe we live on is tilted around its akses. That means that the further north/south you get there will be huge differrence in the length of day and night : summer equals daylight all the time, winter darknes.
Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway) is almost the same.
That is what Bernie talked about, but who listened ?
weeeeeeelllll not almost the same, but quite similar in most ways
basically all stores are closed on sundays except a few expensive ones but to me it feels like every shop is closed
Fellesferie is the three weeks in summer when factories were closed to give the employees time off at the same time. It also refers to the legal requirment that everybody is entitled to thee weeks holidays in summer (out ofthe five weeks). Søndagstengt is orginally the idea that everybdy is entitled to be off on Sundays so they could go to mass, but in recent times so they could go hiking with the family. You are not allowed to make noisy work as carpenting or cuttting grass on a Sunday. There is another expression Helligdagsfreden that means peace on a sacred day .
Fellesfeien (The joint holiday) is something that came about in the interwar period. And was something you had in factories. This was probably because a holiday was agreed for employees and it was more practical to shut down the entire factory for a period, than to let it run for half the machine. Today, many people often have a holiday then, as it also coincides with when schools are closed for the summer, but the whole of Norway is not closed and shops are open.
My grandfather was head of a factory and mother tells me he had his three weeks off while the production shut down for fellesferien.
Your reaction to smalahove made me LOL! I kinda got addicted to your videos, you're funny!
Fellesferien is not a Norwegian custom. It is, in fact, legally required, for your employer to give you at least two weeks continuous time off in the period June to August.
Tv License was abolished very recently, or rather just included in taxes
Yes it is true, the sun does not set in north of norway in the mid summer, the sun is up and shining 24/7. And during the winter it is the complete opposite, It si constant nightime 24/7 with no sunlight
Maybe there is no sunlight at all on Svalbard in the middle of the winter, but in the northermost part of Norway, Finnmark, the middle of the day is not as dark as nighttime. In the TV series "Jul i Blåfjell" they use the term "blåtimen" (the blue hour). That it how much light you get in the middle of the day around Christmas time in Finnmark, for a few hours. The whole periode of "mørketiden" (the dark season) is two months in Finnmark, and the farther south you get, the shorter the periode is, and the less dark the middle of the day is. In Nordland, above the Arctic circle it actually is daylight even if you can't see the sun, since it is right below the horizon.
It happens in all the far northern countries including Canada :)
@@mixy5179 That is true. The reason Norway often is referred to as the place to watch the Midnight sun is because parts of the country is located so far north and still have pretty nice summers because of the gulf stream. Compared to other Nordic countries, in Norway you can see the sun in the horizon over the ocean, which is spectacular. Go check a map over the Arctic. Then you can see how far north Norway actually is. The farther north, the longer the season to watch the Midnight sun is. Not to mention the landscape in Norway, whit the fjords and the mountains. Many tourists come for both.
Fellesferien is generally from June-August. 3-5 weeks in that time period.
After having worked somewhere for a full year, your employer is obligated to give you anything from 21 days to 35 days paid leave. You can generally use those whenever, but most people use that during June-August, and/or Christmas/New Years.
For me in Norway it's Reindeere steak, christmas sausage and cocked potatoes, red cabbage, carrot, brown sauce on chrismas day
Most of this applies to Sweden, Denmark and Finland as well.
In the summertime the sun never goes down for a couple of weeks, and in the winther time the sun never goes up for a couple of weeks.
About the ferie/semester/vacation, you get at least 25 days vacation per year, 20 you get to take out in a row. And the most people take it out in July & August. And thats paid vacation, you get about 0,8% more in pay per day you are on vacation.
When you reach 60 years you get an additional week here in Norway.
"Fellesferien" often last 8 weeks (two months). the reason is because sunday is the day for workers toget a day off and spend time on what they want . and it's sometimes also seen as sort of a holiday and a day to relax
I'm Norwegian, and I'm not comfortable with eating heads and/or eyes either 😄
When it comes to English in Norway, you learn English at school already from 2nd grade, and have English until 6th grade, and after that it becomes one chosen subject if you wish. So if you come to Norway, you can, if you need help finding your way, just ask someone on the street and say; Excuse me, but can you help me a bit? Then you will probably get help from almost everyone! As an additional information; No, polar bears do not live in our streets, as some Americans believe.They live on the island of Svalbard. No, you don't need guns on the streets, even the police don't usually carry guns, only when they HAVE to! You do NOT have to refuse to be with an Ambulance if you have an accident in Norway, all medical assistance is free for emergency assistance. And should you get sick and go to hospital, this costs maybe 12-20 dollars. And remember, you cannot buy beer in the store after 8pm, and you must shop for wine and spirits in Vinmonepolet between 09.00-17.00 on weekdays, and 09.00-14.00 on Saturdays, it is closed on Sundays! This also applies to most shops, except some small shops, as these are only for emergency trade .
The brunost (brown cheese) is a favorite of many in Iceland as well. We call it Mysingur, but from what I know it's basically the same thing. As is the midnight sun in june/july, a wonderful time of the year when it's light all day and night long, and sometimes a problem for parents trying to convince their kids that it's nighttime and they should be sleeping and getting "but it's sunlight outside" from them 😅 and of course the other way round in december when the sun barely rises, maybe only for 2-3 hours there's daylight, unless it's cloudy or snowing, as happens often that time of the year.
I would love to see your reactions on Iceland sometimes.
In northern Norway at summer times sun never set, and at winter time it’s dark all the time
I live far in the North of Norway. In the summer we do have sun all the time. There is like 3 hours were is goes down a smidge, but it never goes all the way down and it doesn't get dark. So black out curtains are a need. But the opposite is true in the winter. It is very dark and some use sun lamps to get vitamin d that they lack from lack of sunlight. I am from the US, and it has taken me a while to get used to it.
Have you never heard of the mid night sun? Try this experiment: Remove a lamp screen from one of your lamps and call it "the sun". Take an orange and put a large pin or skewer through it. Til it 15 degrees and hold the orange with both your hands holding the skewer. Now start twisting the skewer so that the orange rotates. Call every rotation 24 hours. But hold it 15 degrees tilted against the lamp. The holes the skewer made, call them the north and south poles. At every turn, still holding it at 15 degrees, you see that the north pole is tilted against the lamp("the sun"), hence the mid night sun; the north pole(and all above the arctic circle) are always in the sun.. Now start running around your lamp while still rotate the orange between your fingers. Call every round around the lamp "a year". See what happens in half a round. If you are clever and hold the orange at the same tilted mode, half a year later, the north pole and the south pole changes. Now the south pole are in the sun every hour of the day and the north pole are in its shadow from the lamp(sun). In winter time, we have 24 hours of darkness, since the sun never lit up the north pole. After one round( a year), the sun lit up the north side of the world again. This is called midnight sun in summer time, and dark winter night at winter time...
The sun never goes down in the summertime, but in the wintertime, it never gets up. It's dark for months at end...
The eurovision song contest is one of the biggest tv-shows in the world, and not as bad as that woman claims. Celine Dion won for Switzerland, Abba for Sweden etc. :-)
In tourist areas you will always find open shops, by the way. It is the same in Germany and many other countries. But there are always open supermarkets open on Sundays in most cities. And smalahoved (the sheeps head) is only served in a very small area on the west coast. She is exaggerating a lot.. :-)
"NRK Lisens" or broadcasting fee as it was initially started in 1977 to support the one and only TV channel we had at that point. Since the TV channel was own by the state and was (and still is) run with no advertisement, this was one way they could get some money from people owning a TV. In the beginning it was only if you had a TV you had to pay this fee. This was only for one house hold, so you could have several TV units in the house and still only pay one fee pr address. To stop this fee this you had to get some certified TV repair to seal off or remove the tuner in the TV (to use it as a monitor only) and report that in to the state. Later it included radio and internet usage too since you also can watch the NRK (Norsk Riks Kringkasting = Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) on internet. And since everyone have access to the internet through a phone or computer or other ways, the fee was changed so it is now baked into the usual tax system. Meaning even if you dont have a TV or internet, you still need to pay this tax. And now we have more than one NRK TV channel, and they are all ad-free (well, sort of.... we have something called "supported by company x" that they mentions up front of a program and only tell the company name, but no other advertisement from the company).
American not eating animal organs? Dont you also use intestines to make sausages? Well, most of it today is made of other stuff. But good quality sausages are normally made where the skin of the sausage is animal intestines. Maybe no one advertises it, but still do that in America? :)
You had "American Song Contest" in this spring which was a copy of Eurovision. It was hosted by Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson. (You had one singer from each state whereas in Europe we have one from each country) btw Australia also takes part of Eurovision 😀
In north you have a 2-month day in summer and 2-month night in the winter. It's win some lose some I guess 😂
We had that Sunday shop thing in Finland in past too but luckily no more.
We have same government alcohol monopoly too. You get above 5.5% drinks only from Alko.
Is that NRK payment a individual payment there? We had that as separate payment before but people just started to NOT pay it (claiming they didn't own a TV) so they made it a tax so it's taken out from your salary automatically.
Midnight Sun !! I can tell you that an American actor and rock star was visiting Northern Norway, where he held a concert once in the 90s, and he said that after the concert the band had had a couple of beers, they also found out that they wanted to play some basketball! After a little while, the manager came out and said that it was enough, people were sleeping. That's when they really tricked, because the sun was still up! Go to bed, it's two in the morning!!
i live in the northern part of norway which have 24 hours of daylight in summer. Windowblinds is a blessing to be able to sleep. And in winters we have like maybe 1 hour of "kinda" daylight per 24 hours. Since its darkness season in winter. A lot of people gets depressed.
She forgot to say that NRK doesnt show commercials in the middle of a Tv-program….as the only TV channel in Norway. Thats why we pay a fee, so that they can survive among all the advertising-financed television channels.
A bit like how they do it in Denmark. They have the “industrial hollidays” in usually week 29, 30 and 31 with the possibility of moving it to either side if wished for. So basically most of industrial Denmark closes to a halt for three weeks each summer.
In Norway it's more common to have vacation any time of the year, because most businesses can't shut down for weeks.
Smalahove is very tasty but we don't serve it on christmas. It will be eaten in the autumn.
Take a ball and shine a flashlight on it, tilt it a few degrees towards the flashlight. Spin the ball around the central axis, and observe how the light always shines on the top.
Move the ball to the other side of the flaslight/sun. Now it's 6 months later, winter time and the ball is now tilting away from the flashlight. Observe how the light do not shine on the top of the ball. Yes, in Northern Norway it's also dark 24/7 mid winter.
Eurovision song contest have roughly 170-200 million viewers every year, so for Europe it is kinda big thing
Side note on "midnattsol" the midnatsol i more or less always up in the summer, but then again in the winter, atleast in the most northest part of norway you almost never see the sun. It is more or less dark 12 hours of the day. That really sets you of on your sleep/ awake rythm since it is either ligth all the time during the summer and almost all dark in the winter so if you not paying atention to the clock you dont know if it is nigth or day:D
Eurovision song contest: every country chooses their favorite song in domestic competitions and the winners are then beeing sendt to the european competition, where first international juries give max. 10 points to every performance and then the audiance of all of europe, and Australia, gets to vote too, which quite often chances the results dramatically. 🙂
Not everybody, but most parents take a holiday at the same time as their children who has time off from School. That way the entire family can go on holiday to other countries or visit extended family fir a time.
It's a good way for students and others to work and earn some money in the meantime, since Universities an Colleges are closed as well.
Like previous comments have stated, the NRK licence isn't a thing anymore since it's payed through taxes now, but it could still be compared to how the taxes in the US is used to fund the PBS. The big difference is just that NRK is more similar to how the BBC functions when it comes to its programming and mission brief for reporting on the news etc.
NRK is the national broadcaster in Norway. We pay "a little" for everything here in Norway. Around 30% tax on our job payments, 25% on everything we buy, 10% extra on fuel and so on...and the electricity, we produce enough water power to feed ourselves, but we export it to mainland Europe and by back expensive coal and gas-produced electricity. And the state are just piling up money, while we have to pay for it.
Most of the Shops on Sundays or on christian Holidays are closed in Austria . Except Restaurants (if they don't have an off day which is not on a fixed day. It varies) or Shops near to Tourist Areas or Main Train Stations (not in the rural Areas) or Gas Stations.
The good thing about Vinmonopolet, is that you get quality, you can make orders if that's your thing, and you have people who can assist you, with expertise, and who can give you educated answers. The etiquettes does not only come with a name and price, but info about taste, age, country and more...
In a country where you buy things at the supermarket, you obviously have no idea where you find what, and there's no info about the product.
Almost all countries in Europe have fellesferie (~3 weeks) and TV license for public services (radio and internet were never part of this). Norway got rid of it in 2020 like many other countries. Now it's tax-funded. Fellesferie still lives and is typically spread out over six weeks. When working you earn 1/2 a day vacation each week and at least three weeks must be back to back. The worker may choose when. 4/5 of the people use it during the summer months or more precisely during July and half of August: fellesferien (common vacation time). Other holidays are not included in this packet, like Christmas, new year's day, easter, and more.
Eurovision song contest is run by the European broadcasting union, in theory countries (or more specifically broadcasters) outside of Europe can participate if they pay into the Union, Australia have been participating recently.
i LOVE midtnattsol, aka midnight sun where in november until march / april the sun stays away in the winter but in summer time it never goes away 24/7 in that season from early march to the october / november month
Strange norwegian customs
1. Fellesferien (joint holiday).
It doesnt necessarily means that the whole country shut down. It means that it is during those weeks in summer, where most people have their summer vacation. Sometimes certain private offices decides to take entire month of July, as vacation. Even that availability of certain government employees is difficult.
It means vacation and quiet days with the family. Fellesferie is important for Norwegians, and something we look forward to for a long time.
Its not ALL offices that are closed, some are entirely closed, som have fewer employees and things take longer time to get done.
2. NRK - lisens (Norwegian state channel - license)
No, you don’t need license to own a radio or TV. Up until like January 2020, you needed to pay a fee to the state/government to watch these state channels. Its mandatory, so you coudnt avoid it. If you buy a TV, information about it is sent to this office, so they knew you own a TV or a radio. If the shop fails to do so, its still your duty to pay it. So you had to tell the office itself that you own a TV. If you don’t, and they check and see you have a TV in your home, and are NOT paying the fee, you may get extra money as a “punishment” or what its called.
But as of January 2020, NRK lisens itself doesn’t exist anymore. You still pay, but its taken directly from those famous Norwegian taxes you pay.
3. Christmas food
Lutefisk, pinnekjøtt, ribbe and smalahove, the one most people eat is either pinnekjøtt (lamp meat) or ribbe (pork meat).
4. Helgefylla (getting drunk during weekend)
Yes, Norwegians are one drunk people. We love our liquer, and weekends is usually spent drinking a glass of wine, or pouring done the entire bottle. Getting hangover and vomiting is just a part of it. For most people its on Friday or Saturday nights, not Sunday as its workday the day after.
5. Grandiosa.
Its like a “state” pizza. Everyone” buys it, and mostly uses when they get home after getting drunk, and fall asleep with pizza still in the oven, and almost starting a fire. No, honestly it’s one of the oldest type of Norwegian frozen pizzas, came well before all these other new ones.
6. Vinmonopolet
Yes…..almost all alcohol is sold only here. Only beer and liquir of low alcohol amount, is sold in grocery shops.
7. Søndagsstengt (Sunday closed)
Only small shops are allowed to be open. Exception is the Sundays in December. Malls are open for few hours, also on Sundays, for Christmas shopping.
8. Melody Grand Prix (Eurovision song contest)
Long before the voice and international IDOL contests, there is Grand prix. It has existed for decades. Here is where ABBA won in the 70-ies and made international stars. Yes its very big deal…
Americans are welcome, as even Australia compete here, (why, I never understood).
9. Midnatt sol (Midnight sun)
Like 24 hours of sun during summer, in northern areas. Like here in south of Norway, we have may 20-22 hrs of sun.
How did you not know? Norway is basically called and is famous for being Land of Midnight Sun.
Same during the winter. Up north, you have like 24 hrs of “night”, where you barely see any sunlight at all. Here in south, you maybe get for like couple of hrs in midday.
10. Brunost (Brown cheese - goat cheese)
Its Norwegian thing. Sometimes people take brunost to their host in other countries, or they give it to their visitors, to taste. I don’t like it as it tastes sweet, and not salty as other cheeses. I don’t like too sweet food.
You've never heard of The Land of the Midnight Sun???
The midnight sun is a period of two months in summertime when the sun never goes under the horizon, so you will always have daylight. The backside to this is that during the darkest time in winter you will not have the sun over the horizon for a few weeks. Normally we loose the sun in mid December and get it back January the 7th. We live in Lofoten, in the north of Norway.
Smalahovve is not a common dish in our part of the country, and I found it rather a waste of my time. After you start picking the meat of it, it just goes cold very fast, and I don`t like cold greasy food. Perhaps it would be better to prepare and pick the meat of it and then re heat it for dinner.
The younger generation tend to use the weekends to enjoy alcohol, but as a responsible adult we never use alcohol in any amount that would make us slightly breezy, because of our kids and the fact that we often need to use the car to go places.
Drunk driving gives high penalties and the police here don`t play around. You blow in the alcometer or they take you to the hospital to get a blood sample. No road side drunk test is needed. If you are found guilty you loose the drivers licence for two years, go to prison for a month and pay a fine about twice your monthly salary!
The "NRK Licence" was a fee that was "imposed" but is as of 2020 it's added to your normal income tax (which employers will deduct automatically from your paycheck) it is scaled according to income with a max payment of ~170$ (US) a year... NRK is a state-owned broadcaster (radio, tv, internet) the fee is to ensure that there is at least one non-commercial broadcaster available for everyone to access, they broadcast news, shows, and series just like any other channel.... without any commercials.
we do sunday closed to get a weekend dayoff for the workers. Its good for morale :) Plus you learn to plan your weekend :P
I like your videos about Norway 😀
Would you make a coment video
of Halden high security prison
as well?
The closed on Sundays thing: it's not really shops that are bigger than a certain amount of square meters are not allowed to be open, more that Sunday is traditionally a day of rest, (religion) so stores are closed. However, in recent years, some stores have been allowed to stay open on Sundays, but only if they are smaller than a certain amount of square meters. Hope that distinction made sense.
'Fellesferien' (Common holiday) is 3 weeks that we are encouraged to take our holiday. By law we are obligated to have 3 weeks continuous holiday during the summer, and the employer can be fined if they do not make sure the employees get this.
About 70+% would do it in 'fellesferien' as schools are closed etc. Everyone expects things to go slower in this time, and we are all good with it :)
This was changed not too long ago, but it used to be that all TV or radios that would receive commons frequencies, you had to pay a special tax for them to support our state owned television company NRK (Norwegian National Broadcasting company).
We also paid a yearly NRK license to support this. These days we are paying this though our yearly tax-return instead as many would access the NRK channels through the internet instead.
This access from the internet is probably what she means.
We do not need a license for accessing the internet, it is all included in the ISP's monthly cost. The government control parts of the internet as the origins of internet in Norway was 'Uninet' (University net), and since universities here are state owned they owned the main infrastructure for our internet as well. Now these days our internet is more diversed as we have more internet suppliers to choose from. Nut they all have routing to Uninet.
NRK was started to make sure of an independent, and honest means of information that could be accessed by all citizens, and they have no commercials at all.
Cable-TV companies are obligated to carry the NRK channels in their cabled network for free.
'Vinmonopolet' (Wine monopoly) is the state owned wine and liquor shop. Importers and manufacturers are allowed to sell through Vinmonopolet, or directly to restaurants , bars and pubs with a liquor license for serving alcohol.
Vinmonopolet was started to control the sale of alcohol and also collect the taxes for alcohol we have that are quite high, but also to ensure all people in Norway had full access to the same quality where ever they lived in the country.
In rural and smaller places you can order from Vinmonopolet and have it delivered to a local shop, like interior store, food store, hardware store or whatever. This delivery is free.
The dark winters are absolutely true. Even the northern part of Alaska have it from November-January.
American Song Contest is an American music reality competition television series based on the Eurovision Song Contest. It sees all 50 U.S. states, five territories, and Washington, D.C. compete for the title of Best Original Song. The first and to date, only season of the show consisted of eight episodes airing between March 21 and May 9, 2022 on NBC.
Regarding the Eurovision Song Contest, it is a competition between countries (the main TV station in every country) from Europe or countries that are members of the European broadcasting union (EBU). All the songs have to be original and not performed publicly before a certain date. The contest started in 1956 and is still going strong. The tradition is that the winner usually host the next contest. Many famous artists have taken part over the years, Cliff Richard, Julio Iglesias, Mary Hopkin, ABBA, Olivia Newton-John, Celine Dion, Bonnie Tyler. Norway are famous for our 11 last places over the years, a record we are proud of. For many years we were made fun of all around Europe for our results in Eurovision. But after a long wait we finally won.
For the 60th edition of the contest in 2015, Australia made it's debut in the contest. Australia has broadcastet the show for many years and was invited to participate and they still do.
Shops in Norway are closed on Sundays, a rule that previously was linked to religion (rest on the holy day) but has for some reason stayed with us here in Norway when there are more atheists than there are religious people. I guess in some sense, just having a day off shopping is still very nice.
@ThunderNorse , passive members due to being baptized by parents and some like the ceremony of weddings in churches. But atheist at heart.
You also need to know that we have MØRKETID (MØRK=dark) in the Nothern parts of Norway. In summer, sun 24 hours a day, but in the winter, no sun!
Yeah i agree on the NRK license, you basicly pay to own a TV with a channel nobody under 60 watches. Thank god for the internet :)
And there are small sections inside the big stores you can get to if you absolutely need to now.
But i've never had or known anyone to have problems with shops being closed on sundays, you plan accordingly and accept it.
It's a good thing
The sheep head, many, I would even say most Norwegians have never eaten it.
Grandiose, used to be the weekend food before taco took over, but grandiose is still very popular, put on ketchup and sour cream and it tastes even better!
The NRK License was only for TV not radio, that's free. The license has now been baked in to our tax payment (think that's because it has always pissed us off). It used to be like this: If you owned a TV or a VCR you had to pay the license even if you never used it to watch TV. That was because NRK wasn't financed by commercials but by the license. the NRK even had cars driving around scanning houses to find people who didn't pay their license.
July is the month of fellesferie where most people go on vacation for 3 to 4 weeks. About TV lisence, it's not anymore. But our state channels have no commercials. After we got international channels and networks, the lisence faded out.
About the food, smalahove is traditional food in western Norway. And about Americans don't eat things like that. You get it in the processes foods you guys love 😂
No, we do NOT pay licence for listening to radio! here in Norway. Many yrs ago this was common.
The Sunday closing of certain shops was a weird one even for me (Swedish). But I am sure there is a good reason for it.. like, be outdoors, spend time with family. And a chance for small shops to sell stuff ? 🤷♀️
You should have a look at Gordon Ramasy's "Unchartered" when he's in Norway and learning about food traditions in December. Cold Norwegian winter! He also vist the Sami people
In Nunavut in Canada, the sun does not set for 2 months ( 24x7 total sunlight ). Then for 30 days in winter it is total darkness.
3-4 weeks of summer vacation are normal in Europe. In fact most countries in the world gives their citizens an amount of vacation per year.
And no, not everyone takes the same weeks off. Like here in Denmark, you are entitled to have at least 3 of your 5 yearly weeks of vacation in one go, anywhere from May to September. But granted, many have them in week 27-29 or 28-30 (July). Whole factories closes down because of this. And that's not a bad thing. That's when they do larger maintenance and upgrades.
The NRK License is tied into owning a TV. If you have a TV you have to pay the license (Or have it altered so it doesn't have a channel input).
There is a similar concept in the UK. I think these are the only places you have something like this (But I haven't looked deeply into it).
Sunday is a holy day when its supposed to relax. Yes its a tradition we have choosed to have from back in time...
Also, "fellesferien" is mostly used and still excist because of the summerholidays from school and kindergarden. Since school holidays is longer than the ones you get from work, it is a way to give the people working in these areas a holiday too. (This is a very effective way to give your staff some time off, without being short staffed and overworking the ones that are still working because some is on vacation.) Kindergarden closes down, so you have no one to watch your kids. So you kind of just have to take your summerholiday during that period. Therefore the name "joint holiday"
This also happens to be during the most attractive time of summer, so it is very tempting for the rest of the population to take a vacation during this time.
In Norway almost every worker have the right to have 30 workingdays off the job (that equals to 5 weeks of holiday)now you can in most cases probably take all 5 weeks at once, but usually it is 3 weeks depending on the job ofcourse.
The law that covers the holiday says 25 working days but those who work in public work have negotiated 5 weeks of holiday, that is also in most private market too.
It is not exactly like all take holiday at once, usually it rolls, so some goes off on holiday and other stay behind and keep the work running, then switch, and like next summer the other take early summer and so on.
There is ofcourse those who work at hospitals and such still works, people get sick and need medical help. Some stores might close off for the summer too all depending on what they do. One reason it is like that is because summertime all schools have closed for 2 months ... so lots of students that have the time to travel and such.
About that NRK Licence, it is explained abit bad, but basically it is a tax that public TV NRK collect on the behalf of the government, the government pays about 3 billion nok a year to the public TV broadcaster. It have been changed so now EVERYONE even if you don't own a TV ... pay it through your tax bill, It is abit different tough so if you are low income you pay less, if you are high income you pay more.
It was originally a tax to own a TV or Radio... so even if you did not watch the NRK (up to late 80's we only had 1 TV channel in most of Norway unless you had a sateliteTV, in the 90's they opened up for a commercial channel called TV2 that have the right to the network across Norway together with NRK) TV2 was and is a private own channel, but now we have something called RiksTV wich basically is several channels almost like a sateliteTV but with abit less channels, and no satelite you recieve it through Internet or antenna.
NRK is government owned (or owned by the citizens of Norway you can say), it is none-commercial so they can afford to send programs that are not commercial successes .. but they do make quite abit of good programs and show good news too.
NRK channels also run 24/7 without ads, as the Government doesn't find it suitable to advertise on the state channels
Yes, the fact that it is ad free is very important, and possibly an odd idea for an American. This fact alone is why I choose to only consume NRK television and radio myself as I can't stand being blasted by ads every 10 minutes.