The White Falcon - 10.04.1992, Side 5

How Easter is celebrated in Iceland
By Aral Hllmarsson
^^fcster celebrations in Iceland start on Palm
^^^«y (Palmasunnudagur in Icelandic), the
^^Huy before Easter, commemorating the tri-
umphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, when
people carrying palm branches gathered around
to greet him.
Sheer Day
The Thursday following Palm Sunday is
called Sheer Day or Maundy Thursday (Skirda-
gur in Icelandic). Sheer Day is celebrated in
commemoration of the Last Supper, when Jesus
washed the feet of his disciples. The adjective
“sheer” originally meant bright or pure, and the
name pertains to the purification of the soul;
the popular Icelandic explanation of the name
Sheer Day, or day of cleansing, was that on this
day people had good reason to, after having
walked around in “sackcloth and ashes”
throughout Lent.
Sources from the 18th and 19th centuries
indicate that a mud-thick, milk-and-rice por-
ridge, cooked until it acquired a pinkish tone,
was served on the morning of Sheer Day before
people went to church. Such porridge, was
long considered a great delicacy, for it is often
mentioned specifically as a holiday treat.
However, it was said to have made the people
so gaseous that the air in church on Sheer Day
often smelled less than fresh.
Current celebration of Sheer Day is much
•any Sunday in Iceland. People get the day
tom work and stores are closed. Candy
is and theaters are open, and the public
transportation system runs on a Sunday sched-
ule.
Long Friday
Following Sheer Day is Long Friday, or
Good Friday (Fostudasgurinn Langi in Ice-
landic). This day commemorates the long
suffering of Christ on the cross. The name
refers to the fact that days of adversity are
always felt to pass slowly. Later, people began
to draw the uncharitable conclusion that church-
goers had found the longwinded services on
this day so boring that it gave rise to the name.
Nor did it help that in many places it was
customary to serve no food until mid-after-
noon on Long Friday.
On no other day of the year were children as
strictly forbidden to indulge in any fun or
games as they were on Long Friday.
Today, Long Friday is celebrated in a very
sober and serious way. Church services are
held on Long Friday, but no stores or other
services operate that day. Nor is there enter-
tainment of any kind. Long Friday is still
indeed a very long day.
Easter Sunday
Easter is called Paskar in Icelandic. Some
people maintain that there was a Germanic
spring goddess by the name of Ostara and that
the name Easter is derived from her name. A
more exciting possibility is that the word Easter
is derived from the name Astaroth, the goddess
in old sun worship. She was the wife of
Nimrod, whose name appears in the Bible.
This possibility is exciting because an egg was
supposed to have fallen from heaven into the
river Euphrates. Fish in the river rolled the egg
ashore where it was hatched by a white dove.
From that egg came Astaroth. Interestingly,
Candy/fortuned
Story and photo by JOC Tory Bamthouse
Nearly all of the Easter Egg traditions we
cherish in the U. S. were cooked up by other
cultures. While stationed in Iceland, you have
the unique opportunity to taste their traditional
Easter Egg treat - the fortune and candy-filled
chocolate Easter Egg.
The custom of the Easter Egg was laid in
Iceland in the 1920s when the first chocolate
egg was bakery-hatched in a small oval form in
Reykjavik. As the confectionary industry
grew, the Icelandic Easter Egg took on a larger
hollow form, filled with sweet treats and a
fortune.
The workers at the Mona and Noi Sirius
candy factories whip up these special eggs
only once a year for sale in Iceland and export
to Scandanavian countries.
First, powered chocolate is mixed to make
liquid chocolate. The liquid is kept at a con-
stant temperature and then poured into egg
lell-shaped molds. Then, the molds are placed
conveyer and passed through a cooler and
onto the decoration stage. The eggs are
led with candy and a fortune before they are
glued together with liquid chocolate, then
bagged and are ready for the consumer.
stant
^hell
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filled Easter eggs
Get a taste of the Easter season by cracking
into one of these unique Icelandic fortune eggs.
The eggs come in various sizes and may be
purchased at most gasoline stations off base or
at the Navy Exchange and Mini-Mart.
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sun worshippers celebrated the birth of As-
taroth at Easter time, after abstaining from
meat for a period of time. If this explanation
for the name of Easter celebration is true, then
it would also explain why the egg plays such a
big role in the Easter celebrations today.
There is another popular myth surrounding
the Easter egg. The laying of eggs by the birds
in the spring were celebrated in an “egg festi-
val”. It should be kept in mind that besides
being a source of food, the egg is a great
symbol of fertility. This celebration was later
linked to the paschal feast, and on Easter morn-
ing children were allowed to go outside to
gather eggs. In many places, children believe
that the Easter bunny is responsible for bring-
ing them hidden eggs. Rabbit meat was and is
a common spring delicacy in central Europe.
After the introduction of Lent, it could not be
eaten until Easter. This is the origin of the
pictures of images of Easter bunnies, which
often were made of wax or baked into dough.
As time passed, instead of merely eating the
eggs, people began to decorate them. The
contents would be sucked out of the shell
which was then painted or otherwise covered
with pictorial designs.
As the confectionary industry evolved it
included the Easter eggs. The first stage of this
was an ornate oval box filled with sweets. The
custom of the Easter eggs seems to have been
practically unknown in Iceland until around
1920. Decorating chicken eggs never became
common in Iceland, exceptions were hard-
boiled eggs that were later eaten. It is custom-
ary to place Easter eggs next to children’s beds
on Easter morning before the children wake
up.
Apart from the ecclesiastical tradition, there
is hardly any Icelandic custom or lore specifi-
cally connected with Easter, except that of the
sun’s dance.
Easter morning, it is said, the sun is sup-
posed to dance with joy for a few moments at
the precise hour that the Savior rose from the
dead- Some maintain that this will not happen
unless Easter falls on the same calendar day as
in the year of His resurrection.
Whitsunday
On Easter Sunday all shops and the transpor-
tation systems are closed. The Monday fol-
lowing Easter Sunday is called “The Second
Day of Easter.” The Easter Monday is cele-
brated like an ordinary Sunday.
During Easter week, Lutheran confirmation
ceremonies are held. Confumation is impor-
tant in the life of the teenager being confirmed.
It starts with a ceremony at church in the
afternoon. Followed by a feast in the teenager’s
home. All the friends and relatives gather to-
gether to give presents to the teenager and to
stuff themselves with food. The food table is
stacked with highly decorated fish and meat
dishes. Usually these dishes are brought in by
caterers. At the close of the confirmation day
the teenager and his/her parents receive com-
munion at their local church.
April 10,1992
5