Iceland shares many winter traditions with the rest of the world, but as an independent and isolated country, it also has a few unique customs that help make it stand out as a magical place to visit on a weekend break or holiday, full of fun and folklore at this time of year.
A noticeable difference is that Icelandic children don’t get a visit from Santa Claus, but instead receive 13 separate visits from the 13 Yule Lads, trolls (all with their own names and traits) who come down from the mountains in turn to leave gifts in a shoe left on the windowsill. If you are good, you get ‘shoe gifts’ from December 12 to Christmas Day, but if you are bad, you may just get a rotten potato.
Icelandic people are effortlessly trendy, so it’s no surprise clothes play an important part at Christmas. Harking back to when woollen clothes needed to be finished, people still stress the importance of wearing new Yuletide clothes – so much so that those who don’t fear being devoured by the Yule Cat, a gigantic feline that eats those not suitably tailored.
Exchanging gifts doesn’t stop at Christmas. In January comes Bóndadagur, or ‘Husband’s Day’, when women pamper men, usually with traditional foods. This is reciprocated a few weeks later with Konudagur, ‘Woman’s Day’, when men spoil their wife or girlfriend. Sales of flowers go through the roof.
Winter is a time for feasting in Iceland, a necessity to get through the long, cold months, and so a lot of traditions are based on food. The Feast of Thorri (Þorrablót), in January-February, serves up traditional foods in quantities sufficient to feed whole communities.
Bun Day in mid-February invites you to eat cream puff buns all day, with children encouraged to wake up before their parents and spank them with homemade and decorated paddles, each hit to be rewarded with a bun. And the very next day comes Bursting Day, when people fill up on salted meats and peas, to bulk up before Lent, until they are fit to burst.
To experience at least one of these Icelandic traditions is something for every travel bucket list. As well as being host to many natural wonders like the Northern Lights, volcanoes, the Golden Circle of waterfalls, natural spas and so much more, Iceland is a land for food lovers of the World.
