The Preschool Carnivals of Norway
First published: Wednesday May 24th, 2023
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Introduction
People who have lived in Norway since their early childhood may remember that there is a special celebration in February each year. It is called Carnival. The carnivals focus on costumes and dancing, and usually have a party. Both portions of the Carnival are wildly enjoyable for young children. These include dressing up, receiving sweets and spending time with friends. However, the plethora of schools and kindergartens often have various characteristics that make them unique.
The History
The carnival celebrations have origins that date back hundreds of years. Carnival precedes Lent (or Lenten), which is a 40-day fasting period before Easter. Carnival has origins in Ancient Egypt as a pagan festival to welcome to the change to spring from winter. During the Middle Ages, people would eat food plentifully for the last time until spring produce was available for consumption. As winter ended, some food stores (such as lard, butter, and meat) would begin to run out, and the remaining had to be consumed, or they would otherwise rot and decompose. The feast evolved and developed through the centuries to become the modern-day Carnival. In the present, places from Rio to Venice, from Oslo to Frankfurt, and from France to the United States commemorate the annual tradition.
Celebrations
In Norwegian schools, kids dress up in various outfits, such as astronauts, pirates, and footballers, among others. Face paint and masks are usually part of their outfits. They often have parties and eat food like popcorn, sweets, and biscuits. They also go to parades, and they sing and dance there.
Some kindergartens celebrate Carnival with a game called, “The cat out the barrel.” In this game, children beat a barrel until it breaks into pieces. In the past, there would have been a live cat inside the barrel, which would have jumped out after the barrel was broken. Now, the barrel would be full of candy instead. There are multiple other games that are played on this day. However, there are other segments of the celebration that are unrelated to games or physical sports. One of these is the decoration of branches. It is called ‘fastelavnris’ in Norwegian and is created out of birch sticks and decorated with colorful feathers and ribbons.
Controversy
In 2016, there was a controversy relating to the celebration of carnivals. Vikaasen kindergarten near Trondheim cancelled its normal carnival, as they didn’t want to encourage specific gender roles. Renate Kvivesen, the head of the Vikaasen nursery previously said that they didn’t believe that requiring children to fit in with certain gender roles fit in with their values. These include boys dressing up and pretending to be superheroes and girls being princesses. Some parents agreed with the change, while others didn’t.
Resolution
Well, I suppose I have taught you about the Norwegian festival of Carnival now. Thanks for reading and I will see you later. -
By Surajrocks99
Bibliography
3) Karneval: Celebrating the Carnival Holiday in Norway (norwegianclass101.com)