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NORWAY

Norway announces tightening of national Covid-19 restrictions

Norway announced on Tuesday new Covid-19 measures which will be in place over the upcoming Easter holidays.

Norway announces tightening of national Covid-19 restrictions
Photo by Timelynx on Unsplash

A limit of two guests at private homes and national ban on businesses serving alcohol are among new coronavirus restrictions presented by the Norwegian government Tuesday evening.

The new restrictions come with Norway registering record numbers of new daily infections and hospitals treating as many Covid-19 inpatients as they did during the peak of the Spring 2020 wave of the virus.

The government is now following up on a promise made last week that new national restrictions would be introduced if infection rates did not improve.

Both the national Directorate of Health and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) have advised the new restrictions, health minister Bent Høie said at Tuesday’s briefing.

“I know this will cause reactions in places that have barely had a case (of the virus) before,” Høie said, referencing parts of Norway with very low Covid-19 incidences which will now be encompassed by strict national rules.

MAPS: Which parts of Norway are free of coronavirus?

The measures are a combination of requirements and recommendations and will apply throughout the country during the Easter period.

A summary of the measures which were announced on Tuesday follows below. They come into effect on March 25th and will be reviewed on April 12th.

Restrictions

  • National ban on serving alcohol
  • Ban on organised indoor sports and leisure activities for adults, professional athletes exempt
  • Gyms closed but can be used for individual treatment or rehabilitation
  • Swimming pools closed but can be used for children’s swimming lessons or rehabilitation
  • Amusement parks, bingo halls and similar attractions closed
  • Employers must facilitate home working for staff wherever possible
  • Persons returning to Norway after non essential foreign travel must isolate in quarantine hotel for full 10 days, may not leave early on negative testing
  • Cancellation of all planned events requested, attendance limits and social distancing rules apply to any that take place.

Recommendations

  • One metre social distancing guideline increases to two metres
  • Maximum of two guests at private homes
  • People in high infection regions asked not to have any guests at all, or to stay overnight away from their own homes
  • Use face masks anywhere when not possible to maintain a two-metre social distance
  • Only use stores and supermarkets in the municipality in which you live
  • All non-essential travel should be avoided. Students traveling to family residences and households traveling together to stay at cabins are permitted
  • Online classes at universities, vocational colleges and folk high schools until April 12th

The Easter holidays in Norway normally see many people travel across the country on skiing trips, to visit family or friends or to stay at their country homes and cabins. Last year the government introduced a cabin ban to try and prevent the spread of coronavirus. 

The government had previously set out its guidelines for Easter 2021, but these are now superseded by Tuesday’s announcement.

On Monday, assistant health director at the Norwegian Directorate of Health Espen Rostrup Nakstad said that both the directorate and NIPH were looking closely at which measures would apply during Easter.

“We look at how many people can be together, when you should wear a face mask and when you should keep your distance. We consider all these things and where it may be relevant to tighten them,” he told TV2.

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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?

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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