God Jul!

I know it's has been a couple of days since the forth Sunday and even Christmas Eve is over. But borte bra, hjemme best (home, sweet home, literally 'everywhere is good but it's best at home'), I flew back to Hungary for a few days and didn't have the opportunity to post the forth verse (after the first, second and third) of Inger Hagerup's Adventslysene ('Advent lights'; one of the most known Advent poems of the Norwegian literature).

Vi tenner fire lys i kveld
og lar dem brenne ned
for lengsel, glede, håp og fred,
men mest allikevel
for fred på denne lille jord
der menneskene bor.

We light four candles tonight
and let them burn down entirely
for longing, happiness, hope and peace
but most importantly for peace
for peace on this little Earth
where we, people are living.

I was writing mainly about holiday food and some other little pieces of information concerning Christmas but there are so many other things I could have told you about this wonderful time of the year... about carpenters called Andersen... about mice celebrating Christmas... I guess it will all remain for next year. I want to post though one last song that is very popular with children in Norway.

The cover of the first edition of Margrethe Munthe's book with the Christmas song På låven sitter nissen

The protagnist is the julenisse (this is how they call Santa Claus in Norway) who doesn't want to share his julegrøt (rice pudding served with raisins, sugar and cinnamon - a very popular Advent lunch or dessert with Norwegians) with the mice dancing around him.

I wish us all - just like Inger Hagerup - a merry Christmas with longing, happiness, hope and peace... God Jul til alle!