The evening began with an introduction by the ambassador Astrid Versto where she talked about how Norwegians think about and celebrate Christmas. After, there was a presentation from the ambassador and the two trainees at the Norwegian embassy. They talked about Norwegian Christmas traditions in general, and which traditions and memories they cherish the most. Some traditions Croatians might find strange, but also funny; like watching “The Dutchess and the Butler” on the 23th of December, and the czech movie “Three nuts for Cinderella”. The latter movie is watched by generations on the morning of the 24th, and the curious thing is that a Norwegian man has dubbed all the characters’ voices. The highlight of the evening was the wonderful Schubertine child choir, who sang the Norwegian Christmas songs “Vi tenner våre lykter”, “Julekveldsvisa” and “På låven sitter nissen”. It truly set the right mood, and gave the audience the welcoming Christmas spirit.
After the presentation followed a reception with Norwegian Christmas cuisine and drinks.
The food included christmas specialities like pork ribs with sauerkraut, cured meat, salmon, porridge “julegrøt”. The cookies “brune pinner”, “sandnøtter” and “risboller” were all very popular.
The embassy experienced a huge interest in the event in the days leading up to the event, also from the media. Representatives from Student-TV and the national broadcaster HRT was present at the event and did interviews with the ambassador. Due to the great interest and the good turnout of people, the embassy hopes it will be possible to make this an annual tradition. Next year maybe even bigger and better?
The Norwegian Embassy would like to thank The Ethnographic Museum and the Croatian-Norwegian society, and the more than 130 people who attended the event. It was a really “hyggelig” evening!