Christmas in Iceland

Christmas in Iceland

This little island with 383,726 inhabitants celebrates Christmas in its own special way! The Icelanders start parting long before Christmas. Christmas in Iceland lasts 26 days, starting on December the 11th! The Christmas food is delicious, and there is plenty of activities in winter time. This time is filled with beautiful lights, hope, and parties all around the island with family and friends.  

Saint Thorlak the Holy 

Icelanders celebrate Saint Thorlak the Holy’s Day on December the 23rd. This day is called Thorlak’s Mass, and they eat the fermented fish called skata (in English: the skate fish). This fish has a very characteristic, pungent smell. Skate excretes uric acid through its skin, which helps to preserve the fish. You can smell it everywhere in Iceland that day. The skata permeates clothing and the body. You have to bath to get rid of that smell. The skate fish is treated as a delicacy by most of Icelanders. I could not pass through the pungent smell and never tried skata. This is only for the bravest tourists!  

Watch for Almonds in the Dessert  

This typical Christmas dessert is made of sweet rice porridge, whipped cream, and chopped almonds. Some people turn the dessert eating into a fun game. While eating the dessert, they guess who has the almond. The person who finds an almond in the dessert on Christmas Eve, will get an extra present from Yule Lads!  

Advent in Iceland 

Four weeks before Christmas, the Icelanders have a Christmas wreath with four candles. Each week on Sunday, they light up one candle, adding one next week, and another one the week after, until all four candles are lit.  

Also, the children have advent calendar. They receive a chocolate or a picture until December the 24th.  

13 Father Christmases, the Mother Grýla, and the Christmas Cat 

Icelandic children seem to be more fortunate than any other kids on the planet! They have 13 Father Christmases, that they call Yule Lads. They play some jokes on kids visiting them 13 nights before Christmas. The children put their shoes on the windowsill. If the kids were behaving well, the Yule Lads would leave them a nice piece of candy or a small present, but if they weren’t behaving well, they would find a rotten potato in their shoes.  

The Yule Lads have a cat who lives with them and the mother Grýla. The cat lurks in the countryside during Christmas time. The Christmas Cat will eat anyone who has not received any new clothing by Christmas Eve. Even a new pair of socks can save your life! 

Christmas Book Flooding 

A few months before Christmas there is an annual release of new books. The Christmas Book Flood is an Icelandic Christmas tradition. Most Icelanders give and receive books on Christmas Eve. The rest of the evening they will spend reading books and drinking the hot chocolate, ideally by the fireplace. This tradition started during the World War II when paper was not rationed, so it was popular to give a book as a Christmas present. Icelanders read 2.4 books in average a month. In 2011 Reykjavik was announced the fifth UNESCO City of Literature, and the most literate country in the world.  

Merry Christmas Dear Akademos Students! 

Vocabulary 

skate – a flat bodied cartilaginous fish with large pectoral finsthat give it a diamond shape (płaszczka) 

permeate – spread throughout; pervade (przesiąknąć) 

pungent – sharp smell (ostry, gryzący, np. zapach) 

porridge –  dish consisting of oatmeal or another mea lor cereal boiled in water or milk, here: rice on milk (owsianka, tu ryż na mleku) 

whipped cream – cream that has been beaten until it is light and fluffy (bita śmietana) 

chopped – cut into pieces with a knife (posiekane) 

wreath – an arrangement of leaves or stems fastened in a ring and used as a decoration (wieniec) 

windowsill – a ledge or sill forming the bottom part of a window (parapet) 

rotten – suffering from decay (zgniły) 

literate – well read, having or showing the knowledge of literature (oczytany)