History Behind the Victory Flagpole - Settlers traditions - Behind the Victory Flagpole — Settler’s traditions

    As the Norway and Sweden population grew, there wasn’t enough land for all and hunger was a threat. Word got around that Minnesota’s landscape resembled Scandinavia rich soil, with deep forests to provide wood for building log cabins like those in Norway and Sweden, and the same climate.

    By 1860 there were 12,000 Scandinavians in Minnesota. By 1870 Minnesota had more Swedes and Norwegians than any other state! In many of the early frontier settlements spread over the Midwest, nothing but German, Swedish or Norwegian was spoken. They faithfully kept the customs of the old country. To them, their European customs represented their link to the past.

    When Christmas holidays rolled around, you can imagine how homesick some of these early pioneers were. Even though they were grateful to be in their new country, their hearts may have been in the old country. So what did these settlers do? The answer is - the same thing they did in the old country!

    At home, the Swedes had always observed St. Lucia Day (St. Lucy’s Day) on December 13. That was the beginning of their holiday celebrations. Early in the morning the oldest daughter, wearing a white dress with a red sash, and a leafy crown on her head with white lighted candles, would bring breakfast to her parents. This might be saffron buns or cake and coffee.

    Another Swedish custom was that of Julklapp, which is the name for a Swedish Christmas gift. It literally means “Christmas knock.” How that worked was a gift giver would knock on a door, toss in a gift and run away. For fun, they would write clues to their identity on the wrapping paper, sometimes in rhyme and usually very humorous.

    The Swedes, Norwegians and Danes all had elves, dwarfs and gnomes living in their houses. These household sprites were pictured with white beards and pointed red caps. All year long they hid under the stairs or in the attic, but came out for Christmas. The Swedish elves, called Jultomten, and the Norwegian elves, called Julenissen-(nissen), tucked small gifts in odd places around the house. One had to leave offerings of porridge and milk, even liquor and tobacco to appease them, so they would not cause household mishaps, such as causing all the milk to go sour. (Can you imagine gnomes smoking in your attic or drunk elves in the basement!) Danish Julnissen would not bring gifts, but just lurked in the dark comers of the house, assuring themselves that the family cared properly for the household.

    In both Norway and Denmark there was a tradition of remembering the birds at Christmas. Every gate, barn door and gable was decorated with a sheaf of grain so the birds could have a special treat.

    The Dane’s most popular Christmas symbol was a heart, not a rounded one, but a straight-sided one known as a “Christmas heart.” It was woven from red and white paper in the form of a basket and filled with candy or their favorite cookies, little buttery Spritz. Denmark’s flag, which was red and white, was also that country’s Christmas colors. Even so, they made many decorations from greenery, like mistletoe and holly, and called them Kristdorn, or “Christ thorn.”

    Their cleaning and baking began early, as the Danes loved to entertain. Special treats included brune kager (spicy brown sugar almond cookies), kleiner (deep fried butter cookies) and hard spice cookies called pebbernodder.

    Most Danes celebrated Christmas Eve by attending church services. When they returned home, they sat down to an elaborate Christmas dinner. But before sitting down they would put a lighted candle in the window, signaling hospitality to any passerby. The main dishes were usually roast goose and roast pork with roasted potatoes, cabbage and cucumber salad. For dessert there was rice pudding, in which an almond was hidden. Whoever found it in their serving got a special gift.

    Early settlers could thank the Germans for the custom of Christmas trees. It was as early as 1605, in Strasbourg, Germany when residents first brought fir trees into their homes. Decorations were made out of colored paper and a hand-carved angel was placed on top. Later came toys and tinsel, then strings of cranberries and popcorn, then all manner of food and goodies. There were nuts, cookies, gingerbread boys, pretzels, apples, oranges and marzipan candies - so many goodies that it was named a “sugar tree.” Children looked forward to dismantling the tree on January 6 — Epiphany — because they were allowed to gobble up all the treats. Adding to those sweets, the German frauleins had been baking for weeks. Their specialties were Baumkuchen — tree cake, Christollen or Stolen — a sweet bread folded into an oval and full of fruits and nuts, and gingerbread houses and men. (Oh, the calories!)

One little known German tradition was that the last decoration on the tree was a pickle. It was carefully hidden deep in the boughs. On Christmas Day, the observant child who found it was said to be blessed with a year of good fortune — and a special gift.

    How glad we are that our ancestors had such unique customs and that many of them were passed along from generation to generation!