Christmas, Beer | – Drinking beer is our oldest Christmas tradition
Norwegians drank a lot of alcohol in connection with the Christmas celebration. And this is how it has been since the art of brewing beer was known here far up towards the North Pole well over a thousand years ago. Beer drinking is actually our oldest Christmas tradition.
Drinking alcohol has been our habit in this country since long before we became Christians. Christmas, or simply Christmas, was originally a pagan celebration of midwinter in the Nordic countries. But King Haakon the Good decided that the pagan sacrificial celebration should be held at the same time as the Christian feast day, December 25. In this way he hoped to be able to stop the heathen rampage around the high season.
It is also the reason why the pagan word «Christmas» is used. The word Christmas comes from the Norse jól, which is probably related to the Germanic root form je(g)wla, which in turn can be linked to the Latin word jocus, which means joke or last, according to archaeologist and author Aud Beverfjord.
She thinks the word may have originated from saturnaliar, a Roman festival for Saturn, which took place on 17 December.
Conservator Geir Thomas Risåsen at the Norwegian Folk Museum on Bygdøy in Oslo points to the Finno-Ugric expression Juhla, which means party or celebration, as the origin of the word Christmas. The two forms probably have the same origin.
Biggest and oldest
– Christmas is the biggest holiday we have. The first time the word Christmas is mentioned in literature is in Haraldskvadet, a tribute poem to Harald Hårfagre, early in the 9th century. Here it says: “Outside he must drink jol”. This is how we can say that beer is the oldest Christmas tradition we have, says Risåsen to the Nynorsk press office.
He says that the beer tradition in the Nordics is even older. The beer became known in Norway in the Bronze Age. Beer was drunk in all social strata and by both adults and children. During the day, it was a low-alcohol thin beer, but at Christmas the beer was strong.
– The rich selection of beer hens and beer balls we have around the country shows how important beer is to Norwegians, says the conservator.
The first proper piece of legislation in Norway, the Gulating Act, established that those farmers who did not brew beer for Christmas risked fines. Only in places where it was not possible to grow grain, such as on the far side of the ocean and in the mountain villages, were they exempted from this. Farmers who did not brew risked losing their farm in the worst case scenario.
– The beer tradition followed when we became a Christian country. The Christmas beer was supposed to be signed for Christ and the Virgin Mary on Christmas Eve. Brewing started on December 8, so that the beer had to be ready for Thomasmesse, or Thomas beer drinker, on December 21. Then it could be the brightest Christmas peace, says Geir Thomas Risåsen.
Strong tradition
To illustrate how strong this tradition is, he tells about his mother, who passed away four years ago.
– My mother brews Christmas beer right up to the last, and I think that applies to many elderly people. It is an over 1,000-year-old Christmas tradition that is kept alive in this way, he says.
Journalist and author Sissel Brunstad has written a book about the Norwegian beer tradition. The book “Norwegian beer history” was published by Skald forlag in 2019. She herself was surprised by how big and important a role beer has had in Norwegian history, also in the development of the country and for public health.
He says that historically, the first big brewing event was the beer that had to be finished for Holy Mass, or All Saints’ Day. This was a joint project between neighbours, which many believe was started in the Norwegian tradition of charity.
The Christmas beer itself had to be brewed by husband and wife together, she says.
– Beer has been underestimated in Norwegian cultural history. Beer has played a very central role in Norwegian history, also in the development of the country. Beer, porridge and bread were for many years the main ingredients in the Norwegian diet, says Sissel Brunstad to NPK.
Wash child in beer
She can also tell that children were washed in beer at baptism, an example of how our ancestors used this brew. And it was important to mix, or warm up, the beer. There was no talk of drinking chilled beer in the old days.
Beer is an important part of the Christmas tradition in the other Nordic countries as well. When Tuborg launches the Christmas beer at the beginning of November, it is a big event in Denmark.
Experts believe that beer brewing started around 7,000 years ago in Babylon in Mesopotamia, roughly where Iraq is today. After a while, the custom spread to Europe, and both the ancient Greeks and Romans appreciated drinking beer.
Around the year zero, the Romans began to develop a taste for wine, and it soon became the most popular drink there. And it is said that over time they began to look down on beer drinking taps.
The Roman historian Tacitus (56–117) after Christ referred to the beer as tiskarane bryggja in derogatory terms, according to Aud Beverfjord.
Then came the aquevit
Geir Thomas Risåsen can tell that aquavit has gradually become an important ingredient in the Christmas meal, but that this drink did not come to Norway until the 16th century.
– We hear about aquavit for the first time in Norway in 1531. Then the Dane Eske Bille, chieftain at Bergenhus, sends a package containing aquavit to Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson. The accompanying letter states that the bottles contained a drink called aqua vita (water of life) and that it is a medicine that works against all diseases, he says.
– Then the aquavit had existed in Denmark for some time. Denmark and Sweden have a tradition of drinking aquavit all year round, but in this country aquavit consumption reaches its peak around Christmas. It’s a drink that breaks up the actual food we eat, and especially at the Christmas meal, says the folklorist inspector from the Folkemuseet.
Aalborg akevitten is one of the best known and loved akevittans in Denmark, and this drink is often on the table both at Christmas and at other high times in the neighboring country.
– It’s a bit traumatic for Danes that the Aalborg akevit has flagged off and today was actually produced by Arcus in Oslo, says Risåsen with a smile.
Norway as vinnasjon
Today, wine is an important part of Christmas celebrations in Norway, but it took many years before wine became a regular drink in this country.
– Wine came to Norway in the early Middle Ages, but it was actually only in the 1980s that we became a wine-drinking nation. In the past, wine was considered very exclusive, and it was used far less than is common today, says Risåsen.
He also reminds that it is impossible to get rid of the fact that many children and spouses still have bad memories of the Christmas celebration due to excessive alcohol consumption. It must also be included when talking about alcohol and Christmas celebrations.
The wine monopoly turns 100 years old this year, and is historically only a small parenthesis in Norwegian alcohol history. But press manager Jens Nordahl states that December is by far the biggest sales month for Vinmonopolet. To put it bluntly, Polet has 13 sales months a year, and two of them come in December.
The combination of Christmas holidays, gifts and New Year’s celebrations makes for a powerful hall stop.
Song for red wine
– It is also the season for red wine for Christmas. The sale of red wine increases in line with colder weather. It is also our experience that people buy more bottled wine for Christmas and carton wine, and that people like to go for more expensive wines, says Nordahl to NPK.
Akevitt a small product category at Vinmonopolet with 1.6 percent of sales over a year. In a normal week, 20,000 liters of aquavit are sold nationwide, while the figure increases to 120,000 liters per week in the last two weeks before Christmas.
– We see that aquevit is most popular in the area that has a tradition of producing this brandy, such as in Oppland, Trøndelag and Nordland. In Western Norway, for example, it gets hardly any aquavit, explains the press manager.
When it comes to beer, the Vinmonopolet only sells around one percent of what is sold in this country, the rest is sold in ordinary store containers or on serving stands. But it is a clear trend that far more beer with a higher alcohol percentage will be sold at Christmas, even throughout the year. And a good part of this is Christmas beer.
(©NPK)