December 10, 2021

 

Now's the time for our first yule tradition article in this calendar! Our 10th yule calendar entry comes from Miss Lina who introduces us to a local yule tradition: yule magazines!

 

Yule magazines

Around here, December 24th is the big celebration day during Yule, with family dinners and presents. The presents are opened in the afternoon or early evening, which leads to an absolutely agonizing day of waiting for the youngsters. And a fair bit of agony for the adults as well, who have to sort out the sighs, moans, whines and increasing hyperactivity of their hopefuls.

So, how do the little ones cope with the waiting period? Many watch the traditional programmes on TV, of course. Others spend a lot of time searching for wherever the presents are stored, or making elaborate schemes for "busting Santa" when he stops by later.

For centuries, though, Norway has had another traditional time-waster: Yule magazines. On the morning of December 24th, many youngsters wake up to a nice selection of Yule-themed comic books. As well as a stocking filled with candy. That helps pass a little time, at least.

The Yule magazines have long been a tradition here, but they weren't always aimed towards kids. The first Yule magazine was released in 1817: A collection of drinking songs. Which would likely go down well at the Green Dragon, but they are perhaps not something you'd want your little ones exposed to early in the Yule mornings.

Later magazines had texts from the big Norwegian authors (Ibsen, Hamsun, Undset, etc) and illustrations from famous artists, and they covered a range of religious, cultural and social issues, as well as telling lots of Yule stories. The first magazine aimed towards children was released back in 1845. However, in early the 1910s, we got the first Yule comic book, with a selection of comics with The Katzenjammer Kids.

And with that, the race was on. These days, the majority of the Yule magazines are comic books. Most are from three categories:
- Classic American comics, like Blondie, The Katzenjammer Kids, Billy, Bringing up Father, Donald Duck, etc.
- Classic Norwegian comics, many of which were created around World War 2.
- New Norwegian comics, many of which were created following the massive success of the comic strip Pondus in the early 2000s.

Of course, the above categories show that this tradition isn't strictly for kids. You'd be hard-pressed to find a junior these days who enjoys Bringing up Father or Snuffy Smith.

Thus, you'll likely find a lot of grown-ups perusing the huge selection of Yule magazines too, crossing their fingers that this year's magazines aren't just reprints of those that were released fifteen years ago. They might buy them anyway, though. Because, after all, Yule traditions matter!