Barneblad: 2017
Happy New Year (godt nytt år) 2017!
Photo: The Amur Tiger Programme
Calendars with images made by kids. You can make your calendar anyway you like!
Heidi Håvan Grosch
Sparbu, Norway
I like January 1st because it gives a new start to a new year. Some people make New Year’s resolutions (nyttårsforsetter). They promise themselves to do this, or that, or not to do this or that.
Other people like to give the new year a name. I have had the year of light, the year of clearing the clutter, and the year of peace. A friend of mine once had the year of shoes! Naming the year gives you something to think about.
What do you do for the start of a new year?
Make your own 2017 calendar
Maybe you would like to make your own calendar for 2017? You can find many blank forms for calendars online that you can download and print. Draw a picture or use one of your family or something special to you for each month.
If you are making a Norwegian-style calendar (kalender), remember that the weeks start on Monday (and not on Sunday as they do in the USA). Norwegians also number the weeks (uker), so January 2, 2017, starts week 1 (January 9 starts week 2, etc…).
If you are making a Norwegian calendar, you also need to know the Norwegian words for the days and the months of the year. Here is a cheat sheet to get you started.
Day — Dag
Monday — mandag
Tuesday — tirsdag
Wednesday — onsdag
Thursday — torsdag
Friday — fredag
Saturday — lørdag
Sunday — søndag
Month Måned
January — januar
February — februar
March — mars
April — april
May — mai
June — juni
July — juli
August — august
September — september
October — oktober
November — november
December — desember
Photo: Wolday, Mekonnen / Holmestrand Aluminium museum / Wikimedia Commons
In olden times, Norwegians used calendars that looked like this, called primstav. The pictures represented the special days. You might consider drawing pictures on your special days too.
It is also nice to put holidays or red days (røddager) on your calendar. In the United States, many holidays have to do with presidents or political things that happened. In Norway, even though most people don’t go to church, red days are mostly religious celebration days or holy days (helligdager), although not all of them.
Notice that in Norwegian, we put a period after the number in a date, the date goes before the month, and we don’t capitalize the name of the month. It is also strange when writing just numbers. If you want to write January 3, for example, in the USA you write 1/3 and in Norway you write 3.1. The period is the “st” or “nd” or “rd” or “th” as in the 1st (1.), the 2nd (2.), the 3rd (3.) or the 4th (4.). That can be confusing!
Holiday/Red day (date) — Helligdager/Røddager (dato)
New Year’s Day (January 1st) — nyttårsdag (1. januar)
Palm Sunday (April 9th) — palmesøndag (9. april)
Maundy Thursday (April 13th) — skjærtorsdag (13. april)
Good Friday (April 14th) — langfredag (14. april)
Easter Sunday (April 16th) — 1. påskedag (16. april)
Easter Monday (April 17th) — 2. påskedag (17. april)
Labor Day (May 1st) (International Worker’s Day) — arbeidernes dag (1. mai)
Constitution Day grunnlovsdag (17. mai) (everyone just calls it the 17th of May) — grunnlovsdag (17. mai)
Ascension day (May 25th) — kristi himmelfartsdag (25. mai)
Pentecost — pinsedag
(1st day of Pentecost, June 4th) — (1. pinsedag 4. juni)
(2nd day of Pentecost, June 5th) — (2. pinsedag 5. juni)
Christmas Eve (December 24th) — julaften (24. desember)
Christmas Day (December 25th) — 1. juledag (25. desember)
Boxing Day (December 26th) — 2. juledag (26. desember)
Some other holidays aren’t red days (so if they are during the week, you still have to go to school…).
Midsummer’s Eve (June 24th) — sakthansaften (24. juni)
Halloween (October 31st) (most Norwegians call it Halloween and call trick-or-treating “å gå Halloween”) — allehelgensaften (31. oktober)
First Sunday in Advent (December 3rd) — Første søndag i advent (3. desember)
Saint Lucia Day (December 13th) — luciadag (13. desember)
Your birthday — din bursdag
Have fun making your very own calendar, and have a fantastic 2017!
This article is a part of Barneblad, a monthly feature by Heidi Håvan Grosch to share with kids and grandkids.
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 30, 2016, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
