Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1904 — THE CUSTOMS OF NORWAY. [ARTICLE]

THE CUSTOMS OF NORWAY.

Be(Ui Satiriar M(kt aai la a Time For Plearare. One marked characteristic of the peo»la of Norway is their intense and artistic love of flowers. They never heap them in indiscriminate masses, but the poorest peasant woman will gather a few of the wild blossoms which grow at her door and arrange them in a glass at her window with an exquisite taste and feeling which are good to see. The custom obtains with high and low, and flowers are as necessary to a Norwegian dinner table as the food. The religion of the country is Lutheran, but Sunday is not observed with Puritan strictness, for the settlements are small and far apart, so that the hard worked pastor must travel miles from one to another, and even in summer service is only held once weeks. / Sunday begins on Saturday night, so that Sunday evening is a time for pleasure, and wherever a squeaky musical instrument can be found the peasants will dance together in the street. The men dance together as well as with the women, grasping each other’s shoulders and whirling round and round like dizzy human tops. A wedding is a festivity for the people for mites around. It is celebrated at the nearest village church, and the guests row in enormously long 'boats across the fiord, wearing gay colored dresses. The bride and bridegroom bring to the ceremony the silver spoons which were presented to them when they were christened. These are then linked together by a silver chain and are hung up in the new home, to be an heirloom for coming generations.