Happy Fastelavn!

Already February, and I still have not sent any Christmas cards or NewYearsEmails or basically anything at all to wish people Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year. A bit late now, so this year I thought I'd take the opportunity to wish people Happy Fastelavn instead! Technically, I think Fastelavn has something to do with Lent, but I like our tradition of ignoring the not-so-entertaining aspects of holidays and keeping only the nice parts (and usually also forgetting what the holiday is actually about). People stopped caring about Lent a long time ago, but kept Fastelavnssøndag because it's an excuse to eat fastelavnsbollar, and why get rid of an excuse to eat something that includes bolle, whipped cream and jam? Must admit though, that comparing Fastelavn to Carnival, I'm a bit sad that I live in a traditionally protestant country ...

This year, for the first time since primary school, Haldis and I actually also made a fastelavnsris (photo). We have not, however, followed the pagan tradition of hitting stuff and people with it to make them more fertile. As much fun as that sounds, such treatment would probably ruin it, and we are very proud of our creation (the people who work at the Cultural History Museum where we made it were very impressed by our artistic skills - this might however have something to do with the fact that we were the only people there who were more than ten years old...).

I think this probably means we now have to throw out the Christmas tree...

PS: Have discovered today that Fastelavn in Icelandish is Bolludagur. Felt this information needed to be shared...