Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Þrettándagleði

Farewell to Christmas


In Iceland, “Þrettándagleði” is the name given to the festival that marks the end of the Christmas season on the 13th day of Christmas.

On the 13th day after Christmas ("Þrettándi" = "Thirteenth"), i.e. on Epiphany, January 6th, the Christmas season officially ends here in Iceland. People pack up their Christmas decorations and Christmas decorations - and the last of the 13 Icelandic Santa Clauses (jólasveinar) goes back to her troll parents Grýla and Leppalúði in the mountains.

Blysför á Selfossi

Here in Selfoss there is a big torchlight procession ("blysför") through the town every year (weather permitting).

Shortly before 8 p.m. the procession gathers at the parking lot at the Krónan supermarket, next to the Trygnaskáli at the bridgehead. The 13 Santa Clauses light their large torches at a large fire. And then a police car blocks the main street and the torchlight procession starts moving.


In the front, the tractor drives with the wagon in which several large trolls sit and perhaps one or two elf who doesn't want to mix with the crowd.


Behind them march the 13 Santa Clauses, with their shaggy long white hair and beards, wrapped up nice and warm with thick woolen gloves, cuffs and thick shoes. And every Santa Claus has his big torch in his hand.


As soon as the train passes them, the people on the side of the road join the procession and move along from the bridgehead...


.... first along the main road for a bit, then left into Reynivellir Street and finally along Engjavegur to the entrance to the campsite. During the parade there are heaven and people and, above all, lots of children.


Jólin verða kvödd í Gesthúsum á Selfoss með glæsilegri þrettándagleði

Christmas ends with a magnificent celebration on the 13th day of Christmas, as is the slogan on the community's homepage. Behind the reception at the campsite in Selfoss there is a large pile of wood with old pallets on the lawn. When the torchlight procession arrives here, the brenna, the bonfire, is ceremoniously lit in the presence of Santa Claus.



Of course, the Santa Clauses live up to their nature as trolls, they are a bit wild, loud and unexpected and like to play practical jokes. Unfortunately, I don't know why this Santa Claus tried to roast his ass while singing wildly. But he probably doesn't know it himself. It must have been really hot!


After the fire has been lit, the large fireworks display is set off in collaboration with the local rescue teams (Björgunarfélag Árborgar).


A special rack has been set up for the torches of the 13 Santa Clauses, in which the Santa Clauses place their torches so that they can finish burning here. I still think it smells like burning kebab skewers - but it doesn't smell like that.



And after the fireworks, on the way back to our house, the northern lights danced across the sky again behind the Ingólfsfjall and accompanied us all the way home. Yes, I know, the photo here is terribly blurry, I only had my cell phone with me and nothing to rest it on, but it just captures the mood a bit... We then had to unpack our shopping and... then the northern lights disappeared. They came back around midnight... but by then I was already lying warm in my bed.

How could the farewell to Christmas end more beautifully than with the Northern Lights!


Christmas is over

And after January 6th, the Christmas lights are taken down again, the Christmas decorations are put back in the boxes and the last Santa Claus collects his washed laundry from the line and heads off into the mountains.


The illuminationin the cemeteries will also be switched off again. The electric crosses will be dismantled again or at least the electricity will be switched off - after all, Christmas is now over. Even in the cemeteries.


Only the Christmas fairy lights ("jólaseríur") usually remain switched on for a bit; light in the dark is often important and comforting here in wintry, dark Iceland.



Even if you can clearly see that the days are getting longer again... From the latest sunrise at 11:16 a.m. we are now at sunrise at 11:02 a.m. and the day is already 41 minutes longer today than at the winter solstice on December 21st. So it's getting brighter...!

Here's a photo of the dawn of January 7th, taken at 10:40 a.m.


So then - let's start a new year!


[Translated from here.]

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Between northern lights and glitský

Sorry, today is Sunday, but I don't have a new recipe for you. We've been enjoying our free time here in our Icelandic house this week, and in the meantime we still have visitors and go on little trips around the area, so I'm a little lacking in spirit...

But at the moment nature is really kind to us and is pampering us with beautiful northern lights and shimmering clouds in the sky during the day.

Yesterday and today we had wonderful weather, cold down to 3 °F (-16 °C), but clear and bright blue skies, clouds just on the horizon and clear at night.

Yesterday, when I wanted to cook dinner for everyone, I looked out the window again (on the way to the large refrigerator in the hallway) - and there was a wide strip of northern lights shining across the sky. The northern lights could also be seen really well with the naked eye, although not as gritty green as in the photos, but really bright and with a green shimmer.


The light then became more intense, wider, more moving... really beautiful!


And here's the view again from my kitchen window...!


At some point the intensity of the northern lights subsided a little and I was able to cook dinner in peace.


But even when I looked out the window for the first time this morning shortly before 8 a.m., the last faint northern lights could still be seen in the sky...


And today we also had “glitský” in the morning. "Glitský" are "polar stratospheric clouds", also called "nacreous clouds".


They occur in the stratosphere at altitudes above 20 km, at temperatures of around -100 to -130 °F (-75 to -90 °C). Here, the moisture is pushed from deeper layers of air into the stratosphere, and the low temperature here condenses the moisture and forms small ice crystals around the nitric acid contained in the air. The colors arise when the sunlight from the low sun is refracted in the crystals of the clouds.

It definitely looks really nice - a bit like an iridescent oil stain in the sky!



[Translated from here.]

Friday, January 3, 2025

My top 9 pictures 2024 on Instagram

Now around the turn of the year is time to look back on the year, and you look back and take stock, one way or another.

For a review of the year , I just looked at my top 9 pictures from last year on Instagram :

In total I shared 156 posts on Instagram, the first post was from the New Year's Eve fire (áramótabrenna) in Selfoss 2023 posted on January 1st, 2024 and my Instagram year ended on December 31st, 2024 with bathing in the hot pot between the years in the bitter cold and great weather on our terrace. In between there was a lot of Icelandic food, what felt like even more Iceland and a number of knitting projects from me as well as a few personal Icelandic moments from us.

The most popular image was a photo of these awesome Northern Lights here in mid-October, and a second Northern Lights photo above our house also made it into the top 9.



Then two double-layered cakes, a "Hnallþóra" for the 80th birthday of the Republic of Iceland on June 17, 2024 as a chocolate cake with meringue, cream and berries, and a carrot cake with cream cheese for the 10th birthday of my blog in July 2024.


And the Skúffukaka, with which I also promoted this English version in the original Gernan version of my blog, made it to third place - with me as the face of the German blog and with my husband as the face of the English blog. After all, he is the one who launched, supervises, maintains and translates the English version.


My "shoulder warmer" ("slá"), inspired by the Hallgrímskirkja tower in Reykjavík, actually made it into the "Top 9" three times in different contexts - I'm happy about that too! I'm always happy about the response that my knitting projects get on the blog.


My Icelandic sweater gingerbreads from previous year made it into the most popular pictures again in 2024, a real all-time favorite, apparently. Also beautiful!


The Icelandic Christmas cat, Jólakötturinn, made it to last place in the top 9.


Basically, I plan to carry on this blog as before: Icelandic recipes for baking and cooking, restaurant and food tips, as well as my knitting projects in Icelandic style and Icelandic wool and of course some moments from our part-time life here in our house in Iceland. I hope I'll manage to try out new and interesting Icelandic recipes and to present them here in the blog.

What do you want from me here in the blog for the coming year?



[Translated from here.]

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Nýársdagur 2025

Our New Year's Day 2025


We had really nice weather on New Year's Day yesterday. Bright blue sky, sun, not much wind... simply wonderful!

In the afternoon we picked up our dear visitors at the airport in Keflavík.

However, we wrapped up warmly before we left the house as it was rather cool. The car thermometer showed -19 °C (-2 °F) when we drove off. But the car started without any problems, yay! This can quickly become difficult in such temperatures if, like us here, you don't have a garage.



But everything went well, the car drove off, the path was passable, we were even able to throw our rubbish into the containers at the public rubbish point without any problems. There were trails through the snow to each container. However, there was a relatively large amount of rubbish from the fireworks batteries next to the containers. (There was then a somewhat angry posting from another homeowner in the residents' FB group.)


In bright sunshine and bitter cold we set off across the Hellisheiði to Reykjavík and on to the airport.



Greenhouses next to the road in Hveragerði

Road over the Hellisheiði

View of Reykjavik

As we drove towards the airport on the Reykjanesbraut, the sun was setting and we could see the plane with our visitor already approaching to land.


Bannað að gera þarfir sínar - no human waste

It is forbidden to relieve oneself. As far as I know, this sign this sign has been produced by an Icelandic sign company since 2015 and is increasingly being placed in places used by tourists, such as here at the short-term stop near the airport. Although I definitely find it worrying that it is necessary to put up such signs.


Shortly before we arrived at the airport, however, we had a problem with our car:

The fuse on our heating failed. At first we thought, well, it's going to be a bit cold... we'll just have to get through it. But the problem wasn't the cold, but the failed ventilation. This caused our windows to fog up. And then the wet froze on the cold windows. The side windows were even less of a problem; we were always able to scrape them free, even when it was "snowing" in the car. But if the air you breathe freezes on the inside of the windshield and the driver can no longer see properly - then it becomes dangerous. It doesn't work at all.

It's good when you know someone who can really help you - luckily the problem was solved with a new fuse for the heating.

The drive home in the increasing darkness across the Hellisheiði went smoothly - and we even saw the beautiful Northern Lights that kept dancing over the car. Even around half past five, when it was still relatively light. That was a great start to our visit!

At Kambar we stopped briefly at the viewing parking lot next to the ring road for a quick photo stop.


This photo was taken by the girlfriend of child no. 2 - Northern Lights over Hveragerði. Just beautiful!


We then arrived home safely.

Well, the fact that we had the problem that the water pipe to the house was frozen during the day at -2 °F (-19 °C) is another story.

And it's not like this was the first time we've had a frozen water pipe...

But:

We were prepared and had at least two large bottles of tap water in the house in case of emergencies. And we basically knew what to do - heat the shed vigorously where the water connection comes in. So - after we got the shed door open again. Because unfortunately the door lock was also frozen. And unfortunately my husband couldn't defrost the lock with either the door lock de-icer or the hand warmer. But with an extension cord and a hairdryer it worked. So into the shed, turned up the two electric heaters, which are actually hanging in the shed as frost monitors. The heating pad wrapped around the water pipes. And then the old electric oil heater on wheels was pushed in front of the water connection and switched on - oh no, that didn't work. Unfortunately, the mop was lying in front of it and was frozen on the floor and couldn't be pulled away. So we couldn't put the heater directly in front of the water pipes. At four o'clock in the morning nothing had happened, but at least my husband managed to get the mop off the floor so that he could push the heater in front of the water pipes. And when I woke up just before 7 and ran into the bathroom - I could just turn the faucet and the water came back. Yay! These are the real moments of happiness...

We won't talk about the fact that the hot pot didn't work properly today and suddenly only had 68 °F (20 °C) instead of 104 °F (40 °C).

It won't be boring!



[Translated from here.]