Posts tagged w/ jul

Julafton!!!

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
24
2008

It’s julafton (Christmas eve) and in Sweden it means many things, but the most important of them all will start at 3PM on SVT1. Kalle Anka!!! The sacred Swedish Christmas tradition!

How did Donald Duck become a staple of Swedish Christmas cheer, I am not really sure. Nobody is. But the fact is, it’s not really a proper Swedish Christmas without Kalle Anka.

It’s not really Christmas without a fully loaded julbord, either. Because we are picky eaters, we have a modified julbord – we’re not fans of lutefisk in this house.

But a traditional julbord should include:

  • -    julskinka (Christmas ham)
  • -    julkorv (Christmas sausage)
  • -    sylta (a very odd thing, which I actually quite like, known in English either as “head cheese” or “brawn” but it’s not cheese, and the head in question belonged either to a calf or pig, OK?)
  • -    köttbullar (meatballs)
  • -    prinskorv (more sausage, this one is normally fried)
  • -    inlagd sill (pickled herring)
  • -    strömming (more herring)
  • -    lax (salmon)
  • -    lutefisk (eh, that thing, which is fish cured in lye)
  • -    rödbetssallad (red beet salad) and other mostly pickled veggies
  • -    potatis, boiled, dilled, or a as a salad.
  • -    and of course risgrynsgröt (rice pudding). My friend’s grandma makes the best risgrynsgröt ever, and since I normally don’t eat dairy products, coming from me, this is a huge compliment, indeed.

Even though Sweden is a relatively small country (when compares to the US, for example), different regions have their own regional varieties of julbord food, too. In Norrland, it’s not uncommon to find moose or reindeer meat dishes amongst all the fish and pork and beef.

And now, if you excuse me, det är dags för Kalle Anka och hans vänner. And presents, because in Sweden we give Christmas presents on the 24th.

God Jul till alla mina läsare!!!

I’ll see you here again on December 27th!

image: Wikipedia, because I’m not that ambitious as a cook. :)

 
Posted under Culture, Vocabulary
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Julmarknad and “skriva ihop”

Posted by Anna Ikeda
Dec
16
2008

This year, because I was away, I missed our local julmarknad. No big deal, really, because it’s tiny and not all that interesting (went last year, and the year before, and the year before-before, and so on) and held only during one weekend at our local skansen-type attraction – Gammlia. Yet, the official city hall statistics say that this year over 32 000 people visited the julmarknad. Which means either it was super-fabulous, or simply shows you just how little else is there to do in December.


Taken at least year’s mini-julmarknad downtown.

Anyway, what’s “julmarknad”? A Christmas market, of course.

  • jul (def. julen, pl. jular, def. pl. jularna) – en högtid som firar Kristi födelse kring 25 december - Christmas
  • marknad (def. marknaden, pl. marknader, def. pl. marknaderna) - ställe där folk samlas för att köpa och sälja saker – market

You add these two words together and end up with “julmarknad.” Easy, isn’t it?
And do you notice how this “double” word is written together, without a space between the compound nouns? Most of those “new” words made by putting together other words are written “together.” Of course, there are exceptions, after all we wouldn’t need to learn any grammar whatsoever if there were no exceptions the rules, right?

So, this rule in Swedish is drilled into kids as “skriva ihop” meaning simply “write together.” Luckily, Swedish is a lot more sensible than German and rarely will you see those massive words than can go on for a whole line of text.

Here are other “written together” words appropriate for the season:

  • julafton – Christmas eve, Dec 24.
  • julbock – traditional Christmas goat (made out of straw)
  • julbord – Christmas buffet
  • juldag – Christmas day
  • julgran – Christmas tree
  • julgransbelysning – Christmas tree lights (this word consists of not two, but three separate nouns: jul+gran+belysning)
  • julklapp – Christmas present
  • julkort – Christmas card
  • jullov – Christmas (school) break
  • julmust – traditional Swedish soft drink that people drink during Christmas time, personally can’t stand the thing, tastes a bit like root beer.
  • jultomte – Santa Claus
  • jultid – Christmas time

And how do you figure out if these nouns are “en” or “ett”? Quite simple. The last word in the compound noun rules. So, “julafton” is an “en” noun, but “julbord” is an “ett” noun.

Oh, and one more thing. Notice that “jul” in Swedish doesn’t have to be capitalized. In English we write “Christmas.” In Swedish, it’s simply “jul.”

 
Posted under Culture, Grammar, Vocabulary
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