I’ve been struggling a lot w doing art these last months, so I forced myself to finish something even if I’m not happy with it. So here we go. Cult of the lamb fan art . Took me about 55 minutes
What would the Nordics do for Halloween? Well… nothing, at least before the 90s! The American-style Halloween only arrived in the Nordic countries as a result of marketing campaigns during that era. But that doesn't mean Nordic children never got to dress up and walk around their neighborhood collecting treats! The Nordic countries have all had similar traditions to modern Halloween that go back for centuries.
Denmark: Denmark celebrates Fastelavn on Sunday seven weeks before Easter, shortly before the Christian period of Lent begins. Children dress up in costumes and ask their neighbors for treats with a chant about Fastelavnsboller (cream buns), which are the signature dessert of the festival. Children also play a piñata game of slå katten af tønden (beating the cat out of the barrel) with a candy-filled barrel. This originates from a Continental European ritual from the Middle Ages where a black cat, a vessel for evil spirits according to superstition, was placed into a barrel that was suspended in the air with ropes. The townspeople would then beat the barrel with sticks until it broke, and the cat would either be allowed to flee from the town or be killed, to symbolize evil being driven away. This was believed to protect the town's harvest for the coming year. The person who broke the barrel open was crowned Kattekongen (the Cat King) and historically given a reward such as a tax exemption for the year. No cats are harmed in the modern game, but a black cat is painted onto the barrel and the first person to break the barrel open is crowned the Cat King as a nod to its history.
Norway: The costumed walkabout in Norway traditionally takes place during the Christmas season. As early as the 16th century, an adult man would dress in a frightening goat costume, concealing his face and voice to become the Julebukk (Christmas Goat). Other masked adults and children would follow the Christmas Goat, going from door to door to ask for food. The scary Christmas Goat costume that gave the tradition its name was no longer used in the 19th century but the masks remained, and the tradition became a game of guessing the individuals behind the mask. The tradition eventually became entirely for children, and modern children typically dress as Christmas elves while caroling and asking for treats. Despite the absence of any goat in the modern day, the tradition is still called å gå julebukk (to go on a Christmas Goat walk). The connection between winter festivities and goats has a pre-Christian origin and is found across all of Scandinavia, with the Swedish Gävle goat being a famous example.
Sweden: Sweden has a strange Easter tradition where children dress up as witches and ask their neighbors for treats, usually in exchange for handwritten letters. This originates from a folk belief that witches, who lived undetected among humans, would fly on brooms to their homeland of Blåkulla (the Blue Mountain) the day before Good Friday for a feast with the devil, and return to the human world on Easter Sunday. The myth was used to justify the execution of 300 people during the Swedish witch trials of the 17th century. Records of teenagers and young adults dressing as a påskkärring (Easter Witch) as a comedic take on the witch trials were found going back to the early 19th century, but likely occurred even earlier. The pranksters also sent anonymous letters containing drawings and poems about witches to neighbors, resulting in the Swedish Church introducing a law fining those caught dressing as witches during the Easter season. By the 20th century, it had become a widespread children's tradition. The "witch" costume for girls is a stereotypical rural 19th century old woman's dress, reflecting the human disguise of witches. Boys would dress as an old man from the same era.
Finland: Finland's modern Easter dress-up tradition, Virvonta or Virpominen, is a combination of the Swedish Easter Witch from Western Finland and the Orthodox Christian Palm Sunday tradition from Eastern Finland. The Finnish church substituted a willow branch, considered to have healing properties in Finno-Ugric folklore, for the palm (which does not grow in Finland). Branches would traditionally be dipped in holy water at the church and given to friends and family a week before Easter as a blessing for the coming year. The combined tradition spread through Finnish schools during the post-war era of the 20th century. Children dress in "witch" costumes similar to the Swedish ones and give decorated willow branches to neighbors, chanting a poetic blessing in exchange for treats.
Iceland: Icelandic adults and children alike celebrate the three consecutive days leading to the start of Lent, although dressing up and asking for treats remains only for children. The Monday after Danish Fastelavn is Bolludagur (Bun Day), where Icelanders eat cream buns much like the Danish pastries. Tuesday is Sprengidagur (Explosion Day), where Icelanders are encouraged to eat so much salted meat and pea soup that they explode (an alternative etymology for the name of the day is that the word sprengi is a cognate with "sprinkle" as in sprinkling holy water). Wednesday is Öskudagur (Ash Day), but the connection to the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday has been lost in the modern day. Instead, children get a day off school and dress up in costumes, singing and asking for treats from neighbors and local businesses. Historically, children getting a day off and dressing up took place on Bun Day, but this was moved to Ash Day for unconfirmed reasons. A children's prank unique to Iceland was to make öskupokar (ash bags) and hang as many of them as possible on a person's back without the person noticing, but it has died out in the 21st century as the toughness of modern metal makes it too difficult to make bent hooks for the bags out of scrap metal without specialized tools.
The traditions in Sweden, Finland and Norway are declining rapidly as of 2025 because of the lack of commercial interest in them.
