The costumes may be gorier, the language may be different, and the weather could be better, but Norwegian children are still out on Halloween canvassing for goodies. The past ten years have seen a tremendous growth in the number of people celebrating the Eve of All Saints’ Day, or Eallra Hālgena ǣfen as it was known in Old English (can any readers tell us how to pronounce this, please?).

Gore

“Trick or treat” in Norwegian is “knask eller knep”, which means “sweets or trick”. But don’t get shocked if you see costumes dripping with blood; Norwegians seem to like their costumed carnage. Boris Karloff would probably have been proud.

Ruban Roman, the owner of Bergen’s Rubens Skattkammer who was born and raised in the USA, thinks things have gone too far, however.

“I think that Halloween in Norway has become a bit too much about creepiness and horror, and isn’t what I’m used to from my own childhood. It’s ok for small children to walk around in a skeleton costume, but I think it’s going too far when it should have blood on it as well,” he tells bt.no

Adopted

Halloween has only grown into a commercial occasion in the last ten years and is not part of Norwegian tradition. Before that it was hardly celebrated by anyone.

Even so, Torunn Selberg, folklorist at the University of Bergen, believes the occasion could easily be adopted into the Norwegian tradition, albeit with a “local” flavour.

“There are actually very few traditions and customs that we can call Norwegian. Christmas and Easter weren’t,” she says.