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Norwegian health authorities advise against unnecessary travel over Easter

Health authorities in Norway are telling the public to avoid unnecessary travel over the Easter holidays following record levels of Covid-19 infections.

Published: 18 March 2021 15:39 CET
Norwegian health authorities advise against unnecessary travel over Easter
Photo by Lukas Kloeppel from Pexels

Many people in Norway normally travel during the Easter holidays either to ski resorts, their country homes (cabins) or to see friends and family.

However, Assistant Director of the Norwegian Directorate of Health, Espen Nakstad has told newspaper Dagbladet that people should prepare for an Easter without travel.  

He explains that the increasing infection rate, and outbreaks in several parts of Norway, mean that the advice is changing quickly and could be altered again.

“Now that we are seeing increasing infection in more and more regions, most recently in Haugalandet, it is good advice to limit travel to relatives and friends who live elsewhere,” Nakstad told Dagbladet.

“As the situation has developed in recent days, you should prepare for an Easter without visits and gatherings wherever you are,” he added.

READ MORE: These are Norway´s Covid-19 guidelines for the Easter holidays

Nakstad, has also warned that there is a great risk that infection will spread during the Easter holidays and during the coming weeks.

Health Minister Bent Høie echoed the advice.

“You should not visit family in other parts of the country”, Høie told national broadcaster NRK.

The health minister also told NRK that this applies especially to those who live in areas with stringent measures such as Oslo and Viken County but want to travel home.

“For example, if you are in Oslo or Viken but you are originally from Bergen, you should not travel to stay with family or in-laws,” he told NRK.

Høie also told newspaper VG that students that live in university halls or that don’t live with others can visit family at Easter provided that they have their own room and are able to socially distance. 

“There is a difference between students who live in dormitories, or haven’t moved away from home yet and students who have moved out and are established in a new city with cohabitants and children. A person who has lived in Oslo for many years and happens to be a student does not get a free card to travel to visit their parents,” Høie said. 

He also added that students that can travel should follow the necessary rules and guidelines.  

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DANISH TRADITIONS

Why is Maundy Thursday a holiday in Denmark and Norway but not in Sweden?

People in Denmark and Norway have the day off on Maundy Thursday, but people in Sweden still have to work. Why is this?

Published: 28 March 2024 07:40 CET
Why is Maundy Thursday a holiday in Denmark and Norway but not in Sweden?

Maundy Thursday marks the Last Supper, the day when Jesus was betrayed by his disciple Judas at a Passover meal, and depending on whether you’re speaking Swedish, Danish or Norwegian, It is known as skärtorsdagen, skærtorsdag, or skjærtorsdag.

Historically, it has also been called “Shere” or “Shere Thursday” in English with all four words “sheer”, meaning “clean” or “bright”. 

In the Nordics, whether or not it is a public holiday not depends on where you are: workers in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands get the day off, but those in Sweden and Finland don’t.

The difference goes back to Sweden’s split from Denmark with the breakup of the Kalmar Union in 1523, and then the different ways the two countries carried out the Reformation and the establishment of their respective Lutheran churches. 

When Denmark’s King Christian III defeated his Roman Catholic rival in 1536, he imposed a far-reaching Reformation of the Church in Denmark, initially going much further in abolishing public holidays than anything that happened in Sweden. 

“Denmark carried out a much more extensive reduction of public holidays in connection with the Reformation,” Göran Malmstedt, a history professor at Gothenburg University, told The Local. “In Denmark, the king decided in 1537 that only 16 of the many medieval public holidays would be preserved, while in Sweden almost twice as many public holidays were retained through the decision in the Church Order of 1571.”

It wasn’t until 200 years later, that Sweden’s Enlightenment monarch, Gustav III decided to follow Denmark’s austere approach, axing 20 public holidays, Maundy Thursday included, in the calendar reform known in Sweden as den stora helgdöden, or “the big public holiday slaughter”.

Other public holidays to get abolished included the third and fourth days of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, ten days celebrating Jesus’ apostles, and the three days leading up to Ascension Day. 

“It was only when Gustav III decided in 1772 to abolish several of the old public holidays that the church year here came to resemble the Danish one,” Malmstedt said. 

At the time Finland was simply a part of Sweden (albeit one with a lot of Finnish speakers). The other Nordic countries, on the other hand, were all part of the rival Denmark-Norway. 

So if you live in the Nordics and are having to work on Maundy Thursday, now you know who to blame.  

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