Lögberg-Heimskringla - 13.12.2002, Blaðsíða 2

page 2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 6 December 2002
Editorial • Ritstjórnargrein
Lillian Vilborg
Managing Editor
WlNNIPEG, MB
In my family we never suc-
cumbed to the Christmas
moming pressure, always keep-
ing the old country Christmas
Eve tradition. How could Santa
come to our house if we opened
our gifts Christmas Eve, my
friends wanted to know. No
problem I answered. He fills
our stockings, which hang at
the end of our beds because we
don't have a fireplace for him to
come down. He comes in our
back door, eats the pie and milk
I leave for him on the top of the
Mangle Iron just inside the
door, then he tiptoes up to our
rooms.
For some reason, I was
very confident about this.
Perhaps because he always
showed up at the Unitarian
Church on Banning and Sargent
on Christmas Eve. I could
hardly breathe as a pre-schooler
when the Farmer twins mount-
ed the stage to sing Santa Claus
Is Coming to Town because I
knew that I would start to hear
bells ringing far far away. I 'm
positive that I could hear rein-
deer hooves on the roof. And
then he would burst in ho ho
ho-ing and smiling, a tme jolly
old elf, and my heart would just
about burst with the joy of it all.
Then we went home in a
state of euphoria to open our
gifts. On Christmas day, if the
weather was good, we drove
out to Lundar to enjoy a big
turkey dinner with Amma and
Afi and our cousins, aunts and
uncles. Or, we stayed in town
and drove around visiting our
dad's relatives. It was all about
people, being with people we
loved.
And that love and joy had a
physicality to it. It was in the
air. People laughing and talk-
ing and singing.
After we moved to Regina,
and had no family, my mom
and dad created family, and our
Christmas Eve repast and gift
exchange included friends who
also had no family there. Our
friends, the Blenkins, from
England, were with us for
years. They devoured the hot
hangikjöt, mashed tumips and
carrots, potatoes, green peas in
white sauce, all preceded by
hors d'oeuvres of rúllupylsa,
herring and smoked salmon,
with as much relish as did we.
In later years, long after I
had left home, but still kept
returning for Christmas, a
crowd of Icelanders, which
included. the Jónssons,
Baldwinsons and Gellers,
arrived at Mom and Dad's front
door around 11:00 and sang
Icelandic songs until the wee
hours of the moming.
After I was married, we
always had Christmas Eve
Icelandic style and Christmas
day MacPherson style, usually
with Lorne's eldest sister
Eileen, who cooks a mean
turkey, having inherited this
expertise from her father John
A., who was a cook in the army
during the Second World War
and really knew how to prepare
for a crowd.
Boxing Day, as it was in the
old days, was a wonderfully
silent day. As kids we played,
in and out, with our gifts. And
later it became. the luxurious
day to curl up and read, read,
read. We still do Boxing Day
the old-fashioned way in our
house.
In Iceland more people take
showers in late afternoon
Aðfangadagur than any other
day of the year. That's a fact!!
The city starts becoming quiet
around noon on the 24th as
stores close early. It really feels
like people are centering in for
a quiet time.
Þorláksmessa is on the
23rd and many families gather
for dinner that night. At
Margrét and Jakob's we had hot
hangikjöt and potatoes. Then
there was still time to go shop-
ping. The stores are open until
midnight that night, and if the
weather is mild, the festive air
on Laugavegur and all those
other downtown streets is pal-
pable as people and strollers
crowd the sidewalks and cars
bumper to bumper the roads.
Many rituals have already
taken place in homes, such as
putting up the Christmas cur-
tains, and setting out the Advent
candles. On aðfangadagskvöld,
after a family meal and gift
opening, many go to hear song
fill the churches to the rafters.
The city stays silent for at
least three days. It's the shutting
down of the city that I just
loved. It happens at Christmas
and Easter in Iceland. It's a
reminder that there are values
of family sharing and peace,
which deserve respite from the
race of commercial activity that
binds our lives. It lets people
who work in commercial estab-
lishments have a rest. It lets all
of us have a rest.
LETTERS TO THE EÐITOR
Thank You from Inga and Gurrý
Photo by Linda Sigurdson Collette
Gurrý and Inga smile following one of their concerts
After a long time of plan-
ning, endless e-mails, hours and
hours of practising — it almost
went by too fast. As Solli
Sigurdson in Edmonton said:
we had a whirlwind tour of
Canada. We were fascinated by
your wonderful country! We
travelled extensively and saw a
lot but we know that there was
so much more to see. We cer-
tainly were given the chance;
everybody was more than will-
ing to show us around as much
as possible. After every place
we used to say: nothing can top
this! But every single location
was special in its own unique
way.
We would like to express
our gratitude to all you wonder-
ful people who, in one way or
another, made it possible for us
to perform so widely in Canada
and the United States. Now that
we have returned to Iceland we
think back with warm memo-
ries. This tour will always be
remembered by us.
We know that there was so
much work involved and we
can only hope that you all felt
that your hard work was worth-
while. We certainly enjoyed
every moment of it: the excite-
ment of visiting différent places!
How will the acoustics be?
How is the piano? Is the audi-
ence going to be responsive?
Will they appreciate our choice
of music? Characteristically the
audiences were never the same
from place to place but they all
had this in common: they were
great!
The month of October 2002
will stay in our hearts forever.
We hope to see you again some
day.
Happy Holidays.
Inga and Gurrý

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