As a huge deal as it seems to be, Valentine’s Day nowadays is more about buying and consuming things, than it was ever before. It can be set along events such as Halloween or Women’s Day when it comes to popularity. But is it so in far North?
I’m a student buddy this year and one of my duties is to plan events for international students. So as this event day is coming soon, I talked to two Norwegians about that and they asked me: When is it? 13th, 12th?. I looked at them with shock. I’m by no mean a huge fun of Valentine’s Day, but I clearly know when it is. Maybe the cultural difference between Poland and Norway is even wider?
When you walk around the city in Norway, you don’t see tons of paper hearts in shopwindows, separate alleys in regular shops with all kinds of heart-shaped chocolates or sneaky advertisements reminding you that this specific date is coming soon and you have to buy something for your beloved one. Okay, maybe the situation is little bit different in areas like Oslo City, which is one of the biggest shopping malls here. Or in Oslo to begin with, but just travel to city like Hamar and the situation will be quite different.
In Norwegian it’s called Valentinsdagen or Alle Hjerters Dag (All Hearts Day). This has never had any long tradition here, only recently it has been promoted by business sectors (of course). However, I personally don’t see anything as huge as it is in my own country for example, where spending Valentine’s Day alone is a really sad thing. The only good thing about it, is all the discounts the day after, for the chocolates and sweets (don’t judge me).
In my opinion Valentine’s Day won’t ever be very popular in Norway, because this country is quite strong on its traditions and nationality. And it’s good, because globalisation of holidays makes the world little bit smaller, isn’t it? It’s a good holiday because it teaches giving, but we should do that without any reminder.
It’s only my opinion, so if you have a different one – feel free to comment, I would love to know what you guys think about this holiday.
Have a good week everyone!
againorway 