Tuesday 1 May 2007

Greetings from Norway

My plan was to use these socks as a birthdaygift for my niece(19 on May 21st). That won't work. Not unless I make two pairs, because I want to keep a pair for myself! The pattern looks great, and I'm really pleased with it coming in two sizes- since I have very big feet (45 in Norway- you know that is big...)(But I am way above average tall too...)
Anyway- I won't be able to start knitting until next Monday, due to an upcoming "konfirmasjon"( please, Anni, what is it called in English? My son chose a non-religious ceremony, human-etisk or borgerlig konfirmasjon. That takes place on Saturday May 5th. We'll have 13 guests staying here for a few nights, a little more than 20 for dinner, and a total of 40 for coffee...SO- there is some cleaning to be done- and food-and clothes- and so forth...)

3 comments:

Holly said...

From what I know - the word in English is "Confirmation"

I use http://babelfish.altavista.com/ a lot. With in reason, it is pretty good.

-Holly
Heidelberg

Anonymous said...

Hi, yep it's confirmation. Which is a really big thing in Norway whether you're a Christian or not. When I was a teenager almost everyone had the Christian confirmation although very, very few were actually Christians. But these days I think a non religious confirmation is more popular. I'm now a Christian and I'm not planning to have my daughters confirmed as in our church they don't do confirmations or infant baptism (although my daughters were baptised as infants as we attended a different church at the time) but in our church when teenagers/adults are old enough to decide whether or not they want to give their life to Christ they are baptised (by full immersion). I much prefer this rather than the standard christian confirmation in Norway which to most people mean nothing. I do respect Norwegian teenagers who choose to havea non religious ceremony though as the whole 'comfirmation' event is such a huge cultural thing in Norway. My mum will be very disappointed when my daughters won't be confirmed at the traditional age of 14. Although I've told her if she wants to organise a big party iwth lots of presents for them then that's fine by me. LOL.I think your son has definitely done the right thing Marit by going 'borgerlig'. I wish I'd had the guts to make that decision when Iwas confirmed. I knew I didn't believe in God and I knew I was doing the wrong thing but I was never asked what my wishes were. My national costume (which my parents bought me as a present for the confirmation) was ordered 2 years before when I was 12! In my year at school there were 120 kids and only 3 had a non-religoius confirmation and out of the rest of us who had the christian ceremony, I expect only about 3 were actual Christians who believed in God. Good luck with all the preparations for Saturday Marit. I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!!

Anonymous said...

Meant to add, I was baptised by full immersion 2 years ago and it was a wonderful event. And having made the decision myself made it all the more special.