Sunday was Women's Day. It sort of is like a valentine's day and a mother's day. When Jacob went into the bakery on Saturday and spoke with Ruth's daughter she wanted to know if there was a Women's day in the US, he said no just these other two days. She was a bit surprised and wanted to know when the women who were not mothers or not in relationships were celebrated - it is a VERY good question.
I don't really know what different people do, but the hotel was offering a two for one meal in honor of the day, so I gather going out to eat may be part of it.
Then the holidays continued. On Monday was Bollur Day, on this day in Isafjordur the children dress up in the evening, go to people's homes, sing a song or two and get some candy. Also, all the bakeries are filled with all kinds of bollur (rolls). Mostly they are sweet and the specialty are rjomi Bollur, cream filled rolls, but there were some covered in chocolate, filled with jam, covered in caramel and there were berlinners, that are just like sufganyot (a round donut filled with some jam and sprinkled with sugar)! We got only one group of kids, there were about six of them and Jacob got up to get them some candy. They sang a song and were laughing and Jacob thought they were laughing at him since he didn't speak Icelandic. but all of a sudden the group parted and this little 7 yr old boy had taken off his costume and was sitting on the steps in his long underwear. His big sister got him dressed and they left. Zelia was shocked by the entire display, but also entertained.
On Tuesday, which was Fat Tuesday, here called springadag (that's not exactly right). Ad Springa means to explode - because you eat so much. The university Centre had a meal prepared for the students in the old yellow house that we have been in before. the traditional food is yellow split pea soup with some root veggies, carrots and rutabaga and salted lamb, either in the soup or as a side. We had a nice evening and the food was delicious, all made by Pernilla who works for the program.
Finally Wednesday was Ash Wednesday and I am not sure that much happened. A while back the kids would make or have little pouches filled with ash and they would try to hang them on their friends' backs when they were not looking. So, it's not too serious of a holiday. Our Icelandic teachers were not sure if kids do anything anymore for it.
0 comments:
Post a Comment