Halloween 2009

As I have already mentioned, my experience of

Halloween is seeing it celebrated in American movies.

Now I know that Kate will grow up with Halloween,

it gets more real.

Here she is in her first Halloween costume.

When we were kids here in Norway there was a custom

for children to dress up (nothing fancy like this costume,

just grownups' clothes) right after Christmas and walk,

in a group of children, from house to house.

I think I participated once. We were the children

from three neighbouring families living a little

outside the village.

We knocked on the doors of each family.

There was some element of scariness , and I really

don't know why.

Because it was dark and cold and we were outside?

We sang some Christmas carols when the door was opened.

We then received an orange, I think.

This custom was called to "walk as Julebukk" (gå

julebukk).

Who or what was Julebukk? A Christmas goat?

Was this some old Norse tradition?

I don't know, so I just looked it up on the internet.

It seems to have been a custom to slaughter a goat for

Christmas, and then children would dress up with a

mask of a goat's head, covering themselves in a piece

of skin with the wool on, and walk from house

to house getting some treats from those who could

afford to give treats.

Do children in Norway still do this?

One internet source told that these days children dress

up in whatever they fancy when they "walk as Julebukk",

and that this custom is probably more prevalent

in rural areas than in towns.

Thinking about now, it seems to have some slight

similarity to Halloween.