Do you care for some more cured ram testicles?

06.02.2008

The old Norse calendar is not in official use anymore, but some Icelandic holidays and annual feasts are still calculated from it. It has 12 months, broken down into two groups often referred to as "winter months" and "summer months". The calendar is peculiar in that the months always start on the same weekday rather than on the same date. Hence Thorri (Icelandic: Þorri) always begins on the first Friday after January 19th. The beginning of Thorri means that it is midwinter and the midwinter feast Thorrablot is held in Iceland.

Midwinter in the older days
In the older days it was a reason to celebrate as half the winter had been survived without starvation or pandemic. Earlier it was only the husband who was treated with better food the first day of Thorri, as a credit for bringing the family through half the winter. As time passed all other people in the household where also given more and better food on this day.

The traditional food
Now a days it is not such a big success to survive through half the winter in Iceland, but we still celebrate. As a tradition, Icelanders serve for dinner what was normal day-to-day food for Vikings and Icelanders until mid 20th century. Having no refrigerator, the Vikings and later the farmers used other methods to preserve the food during long, cold winters. The food was smoked, laid in mysa (a sour milk-product), salted, dried or kaestur (rotting and setting meat). One can say that this food is consumed as a tribute to old culture.

Some examples of popular dishes:

• Hákarl (putrefied shark)
• Blóðmör (a type of blood pudding)
• Hrútspungur (cured ram testicles)
• Lundabaggi (sheep's fat)
• Sviðasulta (sheep-head paté)
• Svið (jellied sheep's head)
• Harðfiskur (dried fish, served with butter)
• Hangikjot (smoked lamb)
• Rúgbrauð (rye bread)
  
• Lifrarpylsa (liver sausage)

The Icelandic schnapps is essential
With this food, people traditionally drink "brennivín", which is a special Icelandic schnapps. The word "brennivín" literally translates into English as "burning wine" and is also referred to as Black-Death (the name is no coincidence , since the schnapps contains 37,5% ABV). The drink is made from fermented potato pulp, and flavored with caraway seeds.

Eating, drinking, singing and dancing
The Thorrablot celebration starts with dinner. In bigger gatherings, there are often old songs sing-along. Later in the evening, dances start and often continue until the early morning. Thorrablot are also held in the quiet privacy of people's home, where family or friends gather together for this one-time-a-year tradition.

Try this traditional food in local restaurants
Nowadays many restaurants in Reykjavík and elsewhere in the country serve this traditional food as a lunch or dinner buffet during the month of Thorri. These are quite popular in Iceland where the food is almost always served on wooden platters, called "trog" (trough).