19th C. Swedish Christmas Customs

The Christmas table in the Bollnäs Cottage at Skansen, Stockholm – According to Wikipedia, Skansen is the first open-air museum and zoo in Sweden and is located on the island Djurgården in Stockholm, Sweden. It was opened on 11 October 1891 by Artur Hazelius to show the way of life in the different parts of Sweden before the industrial era. – photo source, “Christmas in Sweden 100 Years Ago”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

In the middle of the 19th century the Swedish Christmas still had the atmosphere of a gay carnival. In many quarters, it was one long round of festivities, with endless drinking, games and dancing. The many contemporary accounts of Christmas customs in the Nordic Museum and other records of Swedish folk life tell us that it really was like this. It was during the 1800s that people began to take an interest in writing down the traditions handed on by word of mouth in stories, legends and the like, and in describing older manners and customs. While our knowledge of the Swedish people's daily life before the 1800s is scanty and is derived from travel books, memoirs and descriptions of the countryside, there is a wealth of information about that past century and our own, and those to whom the greatest credit is due are not so much the scholars at the museums and archives, as the Swedish people themselves.


Festivals have, of course, a tendency to preserve features of older manners and customs, and many of what we now call Christmas traditions are the relics of a past century's discarded way of life. But such time-honored customs must nevertheless be practicable if they are to survive. Gone now is the big home slaughter of cows, calves, sheep and pigs. No longer does a housewife gather together workers for a several-day-long, wash, when scoops of lye water were poured over the white clothes throughout a whole night, and the next day everything had to be rinsed and beaten in an ice cold lake. Home distilled aquavit is prohibited, home-brewed beer is too much bother to make. No one has to set to work to bake great batches of bread and cakes to provide for the household over Christmas; many still do, but not to the extent that was once necessary. 


A thorough Christmas cleaning is still very much of a reality in many homes and as far as food and drink are concerned, the old idea persist that one should eat and drink more than at any other time of the year. Beer and aquavit, bread dipped in the broth from the boiled ham, ham, brawn, rice porridge, and even pig's head along as much to the Christmas table now as they did a few hundred years ago. Even the smell of Christmas is much the same. “In every nook and cranny there is the smell of Christmas, that is to say, cinnamon and saffron.” wrote Adolf Törneros, an Uppsala University lecturer, to a friend on 23rd December, 1824.


But the greatest changes in the Christmas celebrations are due to the fact that Christmas is now a family gathering, whereas it used to be more of a collective festival. It was most of the young people who wanted to spend Christmas away from home. School boys used to tramp through the towns and villages, singing Christmas carols and performing Christmas plays to earn a little money towards their next term's keep. There were pranks in connection with the Lucia celebrations in Western Sweden, when the young people disguised themselves and roamed the streets, larking and making a noise, all forms of begging to collect for a communal party: going 'round with the Christmas straw goat, the Staffan ride, the Star Boy plays. And throughout it all, the aquavit flowed in a fashion that we can only that we can scarcely imagine, for since those days there has been a change of attitude owing to the temperance and revivalist movements.— From the book, “Christmas in Sweden 100 Years Ago,” 1964

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Scandinavian Etiquette Formalities

At the end of the Danish dinner party, the hostess will stand in the doorway and shake hands with every guest while he murmurs, “Thank you for the food”... Royal Copenhagen dinnerware– Photo source, Pinterest

Some feel that etiquette in Scandinavia is a thing to be dreaded, especially in Sweden. Even the former should address a person by his full diplomatic, political, professional or commercial title. Thus, one meets Mr. the Assistant to the Bank Manager Wirseen or Mr. the Former Manufacturer of Blood Sausage Olson. 

Denmark is far less formal, both in speech and attire, but at the end of the dinner party, the hostess will stand in the doorway and shake hands with every guest while he murmurs, “Thank you for the food,” to which she answers, “I hope it will become you well.” – Lompoc Review, 1930

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Scandinavian Skoaling Etiquette

The custom in Scandinavia is believed to have had its origins in the Stonge Age, and certainly can be traced back to the Vikings, say various historical sources. It is just as correct to skoal with water or with soft drink, as it is with still wine, champagne, the liqueurs, or the Scandinavian national beverages of beer and aquavit.

When “Skoaling” in Scandinavia,You’re Supposed to Use Your Eyes, Too

Copenhagen, Denmark (UPI) 
Lifting a glass to toast the health of dining companions is a custom prescribed in many countries of the world. In the United States, on informal occasions, the message to go with the toast usually is the simple “cheers.” Maybe the glasses are touched. This is the British toast too. In Germany, the toastmaster says “prosit.” In Italian, it’s “la sua salute.” In Spanish, “salud,” in French “a votre sante” and in Japanese, “kampaii.” 

In Scandinavia, the fine art of drinking to the health of friends has been polished and aged so well through the centuries, that to think of these Nordic peoples is to think almost automatically, of their “skaal,” or “skoal,” as it has been Anglicized. Fifteen women reporters from North and South America, Western Europe and Japan on a two weeks tour of Denmark, Norway and Sweden have been “skoaled” so , frequently that when we hear the salute to our good health we automatically lift a glass, look at our host and sip even if we’ve switched to mineral water. Matter of fact, it is just as correct to skoal with water or with soft drink, as it is with still wine, champagne, the liqueurs, or the Scandinavian national beverages of beer and aquavit.

The custom in Scandinavia is believed to have had its origins in the Stonge Age, and certainly can be traced back to the Vikings, say various historical sources. “Skaal” in Danish literally means bowl, and is a word earned over from ancient days when a guest or guests would be welcomed into a home by the host’s presentation of a bowl of grain or other food. Presenting the food was a symbol of friendship. The tradition held, but as time passed, beverages were substituted for the grain.

The proper way to “skoal,” the Danish Information Office says, is for the host first to raise a glass— no one sips before the host has offered the toast— and look around at the guests at the table, then directly into the eyes of one particular guest, say “skoal,” drink, then look into the same pair of eyes again. A guest may offer a skoal to his host, but never to the hostess. But the hostess may offer a “skoal” to the guests.

At a large dinner party, with say 25 or 30 persons present, this “skoaling” for each individual gets so long drawn out that usually the host offers that eye-to-eye “skoal” to one or two guests, then gives everyone a chance to sip without all the formalities, by offering what is known as the “round skoal.” This one is a toast offered to all at the table, and after that first sip and glance at the host or the person across the table from you guests may lift glasses without the repetition of “skoal” each time.

In Norway, one way to get the evening’s protocol out of the way rapidly, was to offer an all-embracing “skoal around the coast.’’ I asked one Danish gentleman if there was etiquette for “skoal” when a boy dates a girl. “The same rule applies,” he said, “The boy looks into her eyes, says 'skoal,' sips, and looks into her eyes again.” “Wonderful,” he said, “for abetting romance.” — The Desert Sun, 1963

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Royal Etiquette in Sweden/Norway

Charles XV, was the King of Sweden and Norway (1859–72) ~ The son and successor of Oscar I. Seen as a liberal and popular ruler, he consented to many reforms, including the creation of a bicameral parliament. 

The most popular sovereign of the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway is Charles XV, and his Queen is a Princess of the House of Orange. He has been on the throne about eight years, and is now in his forty second year. He lives principally at the Palace of Ulrichshall, a little distance from Stockholm. It is fitted with articles of vertu, china and ceramic ware, which the Monarch takes delight in collecting. 

When the Prince of Wales paid him a visit some years since, it was entirely redecorated, and many rooms fitted up expressly for the Royal guest, and they now remain as they were then left. Very little State etiquette is preserved by the Court, and the Monarch travels daily down the Maylar Lake to Ulrichshall in the public steamboat like the rest of the world, the only difference shown him being that the other passengers forbear to crowd the end occupied by him. —Sacramento Daily Union, 1867

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Moderator and Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia