Halloween in Norway
It’s not too spooky and makes me a little nostalgic for home
This will mark our second Halloween spent in Norway. I didn’t think much about it the first time through, but with a growing toddler who is excited to trick-or-treat, I’ve been thinking about the differences between Halloween here in Norway and Halloween at home in the states. Needless to say, it’s a much more widely celebrated holiday in the US than it is in Norway.
According to the blog Life in Norway, Halloween wasn’t really celebrated throughout the country until the 2000s to 2010s when grocery stores and toy shops began selling Halloween candy and costumes. Although these items are available in stores now, from our experience, the options are limited and ordering costumes online or making them yourself at home is the better option. We ordered my son’s costume online as I am not crafty, and he had a very specific request this year.
It is possible to find celebrations leading up to the actual day of Halloween, but they are nothing like what you’ll see in the United States. There are no “boo at the zoo” or “trunk or treat” or pumpkin patches to go to in anticipation of the big day. Although, we do live in a small town, and I’m sure larger cities have a little more going on than what we do here.
There are a few Halloween themed events in the lead-up to Halloween in our town. The mall hosted a Libra Dager weekend for Halloween which included a Barnas Dag (children’s day) on Saturday. The entire mall participated. There were spooky decorations hung throughout the stores and in the halls, waffles for sale, a photobooth, mechanical horses to ride around, facepainting, and a couple of special performances. It was small but so special and fun for the kids. Some children dressed in their costumes while others came in normal clothes to enjoy the day. The culture center in town will also host a Halloween party on October 31st usually with some performances from the dance and music classes at the center just before it’s time to trick-or-treat.
Overall, outdoor home decor is few and far between here as well. I have not seen a single home with any kind of elaborate Halloween decor like you will see in the states. This is something I was surprised to find that I miss. I guess I took the fun of driving around town to see Halloween displays for granted. They just don’t exist here. We did see small Halloween displays on the actual day last year while trick-or-treating, so I am excited for that aspect of the day.
You can find plenty of small, mostly indoor decorations at the mall though, and we were able to get a pumpkin from the grocery store to carve. Our toddler loved carving the pumpkin. Taking the “guts” out was out of the question for him, but once his dad started carving he was so excited. It is fun getting to have these little experiences with him.
Friday is the big day, or evening rather, for trick-or-treating here just like in the US. Trick-or-treating generally happens on October 31st, no matter the day of the week. Since the sun starts setting before 5:00pm at this point in the year, trick-or-treating happens early, which is nice. Not all houses participate, so we will have to look for those with their porch lights turned on and a little decoration or two put up outside. This is generally a good indicator that we are welcome to ring the doorbell and say “knask eller knep” which, as you may have guessed, means “trick or treat.”
Our toddler is at an age where he is starting to understand more and get excited for holidays. He has woken up every day this week asking if it’s time for Halloween or if he gets to go trick-or-treating that night. I’m excited to see how he responds to the actual event of trick-or-treating on Friday. He’s generally pretty outgoing, so I think he’ll have no trouble ringing a doorbell and saying “knask eller knep!”
