My Scandinavian Heritage

 

My mother was born in Malmo, Sweden in 1899.  My father was born in Madelia, Minnesota in 1896. His mother was born in Norway and his father in Denmark. So I can truly say that I have Scandinavian roots. I can also claim a heritage of Christian Faith.  Faith of our Fathers, Holy Faith, can be my theme song because of the close relationship my parents and grandparents experienced with the Lord.

As we grew up in North Dakota in the 1920’s and 30’s I never can remember having a Christmas tree or hearing “Santa Claus” is watching your behavior.  We knew from an early age that the Lord God was watching us and loved us and cared for us, just as we experienced that love from our earthly parents.  It was strongly believed and taught that the Ten Commandments written in Exodus 20 were the guideline for our conduct. 

Of course, the first commandment, “Thou shall have no other gods before me” became the most practiced in our family. It was explained to us that God did not want His children to put any item before Him, and Christmas was entirely about the birth of the Son of God, who became man, that He could redeem mankind from their sinful nature.  Placing a decorated tree, therefore, would be considered a replacement of the Christ Child, usurping the glory that belonged only to the Christ Child. Anything that could come between our God and our pleasure was therefore considered an idol...  This was also continued in the experiences of the entrance of Hollywood movies, Radio entertainment, and anything else which could damage our relationship with our Father in Heaven

No Christmas trees, no Santa, no idol worship.

Our Christmas was celebrated with a special treat from town, a bag of apples and a bag of oranges, which we surely enjoyed.  AND the story of the Birth of the Savior, read by our parents.

 Since our parents had such close ties to the OLD Country, they often talked in Norwegian, burefused to pass that to us as we were American Citizens, and needed to only learn English.

Other traditions were also left in the past, as they developed new traditions for their family.

I do remember the smell of the fish which came to our celebration dinners.  Lutefisk!  Very strong smelling and I never tasted it. But my parents loved it!

Another thing which was brought to our attention was bread, called Lefsa.  It was a tradition of the older people to gather together, make the dough and then fry the round, tortilla, bread on the wood cook stove.  Such fun and such chatter as the children watched and ate this sweet tasting bread of our forefathers.

Another gathering at Holidays was to make a cookie like desert called, ‘Krumkake”.   They do take a special Krumkake iron to bake them. They are very tasty.

As you can see, the Swedish and Norwegian traditions were not practiced in our house, except those which followed the heritage of the Christian family. We learned the truth, and did not practice the myths that were becoming so strong in those years.  My heart aches when I think of the way many are ignoring the Greatest Gift given whereby man can be redeemed.  May we return to the worship of the NewBorn King, Christ Jesus, Our Redeemer!!