Emergency call from my best friend. An hour ago. “OMG, I just have to tell you what happened right now!” Wow, sensation? Right now she is at work at school – what could possibly happen there?
Today is Friday – a day when one of the teachers cooks for all. From the celebration of 17th of May there were lots of sausages left. So she just cooked a bunch of them, plus salad, bread, ketchup and mustard. On entering the kitchen everybody got happy. “It smells so good! It smells 17th of May” (The National Day of Norway, remember?). The joy was real, common, village-like, that is: shared by everybody. Except my friend who is not happy about sausages and was eating her sandwich. I guess, her face spoke better than words – and it added the note of dissonance in the common symphony of joy. As one of the teachers noted: “Ah, so delicious with sausages”, and after seeing my friend’s face, “or not?”
My friend’s comment: “People!!! Couldn’t you invent something more for your National Day than cooked sausages and making it the highlight of the day?!”
As an American friend put it in the congratulation sms on 17th of May: “Happy pølse n lompe day!” (pølse is sausage, lompe is sausage bread, like pancake). The essence of the day, indeed.
After some giggles – some questions:
1.Why is The Sausage so central to Norwegian culture? (why not fish? This is a nation of fishermen)
2.How are foreigners to behave if they don’t like sausages?
3.What is the smell of the National Day in your country?
P.S. for students of culture and communication – this is an example of the symbolism of smell. Væresågod! Håper, det smaker ;)
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