Easter in Norway is dominated by Easter chickens, Easter eggs in all colors and occasionally Easter bunnies. Yellow chickens are everywhere at Easter time. Drawn chickens, plastic chickens, cotton chickens, chickens made of all sorts of materials can be seen in private homes, shop windows, newspapers and magazines, on plastic bags and on television. It’s no wonder yellow has become the color of Easter in Norway. 

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays in Norway. School children however have 6 days of Easter vacation (not counting the weekends). 

The Norwegians in general do not pay much attention to the religious aspect of Easter. Of course they know the story, but only some will go to church services. 

At Easter there are more religious programs on TV than usual, but there is an other genre that dominates far more: detective series. 

Nobody quite knows why, but for some reason Easter is the high time for reading crime stories and detective novels in Norway. The TV stations all have at least one detective series going at Easter. The series and the books are referred to as “Easter-crime”. 

Going skiing in the mountains is for many Norwegians what Easter holidays are all about. Getting away from the city, enjoying the snow and the weather and not to mention getting a tan to show off when back at work are popular things to do during the vacation. 

The daffodils are usually blooming around Easter, and that’s how they got their Norwegian name “Påskeliljer” - or “Easter lilies” as that would be in English. 
 
 

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