|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
Lutefisk: A Norwegian Christmas Dinner Oddity
| Article
# : |
12059 |
|
|
Section : |
CULTURE
|
| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1987 |
2,566 Words |
| Author
: |
Roger L. Welsch
Plains folklorist Roger L. Welsch is professor of English and
anthropology at the University of Nebraska. |
Some years ago, I was courting a young woman whose family was very American, but which remembered and embraced its Norwegian roots. Over the course of three generations, the family had fared well in America; they had become successful, primarily as farmers and prosperous businessmen. Although all members of the family were outspokenly proud of their Scandinavian background, little about them--other than their name and fair skins--was Norwegian. Not one spoke Norwegian; only one had even visited the old country. Their clothing, manner, speech, and food ways were unvaryingly middle American.
Although I had met almost all family members on one occasion or another and we got along just fine, I not only was not invited to the family's annual Christmas celebration, but was told explicitly that outsiders were not invited to that family gathering unless they had established a clear and solid relationship with the family--marriage, that is to say, or at least engagement.
This mysterious rite was therefore a matter of curiosity for me as the deliberately excluded outsider. When I eventually was invited to the family's Christmas, I accepted the offer with eager, even avid, enthusiasm.
What struck me, on my first Christmas with this family, was that a series of unique and spontaneous events was in reality an established scenario that, I was to learn while attending the next fifteen consecutive celebrations, was played out every year with little variation. The process was not written down; it was not maintained by any sort of official enforcement. There was no deliberately, artificially conscious effort to maintain the details of the celebration;
... (1997 of 14944 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
