As many of you know, most of Norway has been "closed down" for most of this week, at least from Thursday, and even your e-mails have been filed away at our office. Not many have reached my home computer. But I did receive one which is very topical:

It is from the US:

Hello--
I'm interested in knowing more about the Sami celebrations at Easter. How did that holiday come to be such a high holiday in their culture?
Thanks. Joyce

Here is my reply:

I am not an expert on this subject, But I think the following is quite accepted:

The Sami people were exposed to Christianity through missionaries from around 1715 onwards, both from the Church of Norway, and from lay missionaries.

Why did Easter become their main church holiday? For one thing, it may well have been because their missionaries had come to realize what today has become equally stressed in the Lutheran church here in Norway at least, - that what happened at Easter is the foundation of the Christian Faith:

Without the Ressurection on Easter morning, there would be no salvation!

For the same reason we have had a change in the way we observe Good Friday: From being a Loooong Friday (actually Longfriday in Norwegian), filled with mental flogging and remorse, - to meditating on the great sacrifice (and suffering, to be sure) necessary to bring us to the Joy of Easter Morning.

This is also the message in the Lutheran churches in the US, I know.

There was also in the lay movement in the North at the time, a feeling that the celebration of Christmas had taken up much of the earlier "heathen" traditions of the Norse, with an overabundance of food and gifts, and what they regarded as worship of the Christmas tree, which of course was a rite from of old, looking forward to a new spring and new life in Nature.

Of course, early Christian missionaries to Northern Europe had wisely accepted the importance of this Viking Midwinter Yule Feast, and changed its content (in part) and message, to celebrate the birth of Christ.

But the later missionaries to the Sami people saw no need to introduce this "heathen" feast into the Sami culture, and therefore (I believe) put the stress on Easter instead.

The fact that it also coincided with the moving of the reindeer herds from the winter grazing grounds to the coastal fields, has made Easter Week a time of gathering also for important family occasions, like confirmation (on Palm Sunday) weddings and baptisms, and just plain meeting relatives and friends after a long winter.

Their weddings are a colourful display also of their traditional national costumes with beautiful handicraft in embroidery and bonecraft.

I hope this gives you some idea of what may have made Easter an important holiday for the Sami people.

A Happy Easter to you all!

Sincerely,
Rolleiv Solholm
Chief Editor
Norway Post