Scandinavium #8: Christmas hours
It took some laborious browsing of Norwegian Wikipedia but I have learned the specific names for the dates of Dec. 23rd to Jan. 1st in Norwegian (at least, I think I do) as follows:
Norwegian word ("literal translation"): Date
Lillejuleaften ("Little Christmas Eve"): Dec. 23rd
Juleaften ("Christmas Eve"): Dec. 24th
Juledag ("Christmas Day"): Dec. 25th
Andre Juledag ("Second Christmas Day"): Dec. 26th
Romjul ("Christmas room"): Dec. 27th to Dec. 31st
Lillenyttårsaften ("Little New Year's Eve"): Dec. 30th
Nyttårsaften ("New Year's Eve"): Dec. 31st
Nyttårsdag ("New Year's Day"): Jan. 1st
"Andre juledag" is better known as "Boxing Day" in the British Commonwealth countries and Canada-bordering states in the U.S. "Romjul" is that slow week between Christmas and New Year's where people are supposed to work but not much really gets done with so many people gone. Technically, that's happening now, but since I'm back in the U.S. right now for the holidays with my family, I can't really say what's going on in Norway. I might stay next year just to take in the sights and sounds. Perhaps someone will visit me. ;-)
Anyway, the reason I had to learn these names is because every business in Norway seems to have different hours for each time period. As an aside, this is a nightmare for Google Maps and Yelp, which already struggle with the fact that most stores which are normally closed on Sundays are open during the month of December to get more customers in on the sales. So for a newcomer to Norway, reliably knowing a store's hours ahead of time is pretty much impossible, but a ballpark guess of 9 am to 6 pm is usually reasonable (but somewhat less so for those who like to sleep in like me).
I unfortunately did not take a picture of one of the many printed postings outside businesses in Lillestrøm with the hours listed for each date, which is quite a substantially detailed list given all of the above named dates. Generally speaking, everyone was closed on the holidays, sometimes the eve days, and partially open on other days. What is certain is that the word among the foreigners here is to stock up on groceries before the holidays hit if you have small refrigerator, or hope that the weather is cold enough so that all of the outdoors is your refrigerator.
This blogpost from My Little Norway, which I used for cross-referencing purposes, has way more details on the entire Christmas season, stretching from November to mid-January. Of course, after all of this research, I discovered that English Wikipedia has its own page for Jul in Norway.
