American Reacts to Norwegian Superstitions
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- čas přidán 24. 04. 2024
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As an American I don't know anything about superstitions and taboos in Norway. Today I am very interested in learning about what Norwegians say are some of their most popular superstitions. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!
"Vardøger'
It's not exactly a ghost, but rather a feeling that someone is coming to visit. And you go to look, but there is no one there. Then after a few minutes, someone comes to the door.
it's like predicting someone will come/ you can hear them coming before they're there. you can even hear their voices etc that feel like the person that's coming is there. if i remember correctly its a guardian spirit that's telling you the one they're protecting is coming for a visit ( i think i read that somewhere ) had this happen to me many times, not just the door but when people call me on the phone as well ( like i thought i just heard the phone ring and it's probably " this " person that's calling )
Had this happen a few times. I'm not superstitious, but sometimes I have experienced this, especially at our cabin (which is actually an old 2 story house). We were sitting on the couch reading or playing cards. Then we heard sounds like someone opening the front door and walking in the entryway. Someone would get up and open the door to the hallway to greet them, but nobody was there. Then, 2 minutes later, my dad would come in from ice fishing.
@@AudunWangen My dad was a very down to earth guy, but after my mom died, when I came to visit he always had the coffee ready because he'd heard my car in the driveway like 5-10 minutes earlier. This also happened if I was just popping by without calling him beforehand. I think both he and I found it very strange, lol. I still don't know what to think about it, but I somehow kind of felt extra welcome
@@Ridiculina To be honest, I think we're just trying to find patterns, and that can amplify the experience that it's some kind of magic.
I know that when I'm at our cabin, I'm much more aware, relaxed and receptive. It's dead quiet, and the house is very old, drafty and have both birds and mice living in the walls. At home, I would probably not even notice it, but every sound there has my mind going immediately.
So unless we have a notebook with meticulous records of every time you feel "oh, that is vardøger", I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. It would actually be a quite reliable experiment to test the hypothesis, because you can take note of it BEFORE "vardøger" is confirmed 🤔
My son and I have that, not every time but very often. I had the same with my dad.
Vardøger is not superstition but fact. Once when i was litte, I was helping my mom in the kitchen, before dinner, I heard my father enter the door to the cellar, and then walk up the stairs to the hallway where he put away his shoes, and then there was silence instead of him walking to the second staircase up to second floor where we lived. I thought it a bit strange so I asked my mother why father didn't come up. She then just shook her head and told me that it was not my father but his vardøger. She then explained matter of factly what a vardøger was, and then added that my father would come home in about 15 minutes time. It didn't frighten me, since my mother was so relaxed about it. She spoke like if it was completely normal. And just as she said, 15 minutes later I heard the same sounds only a bit louder. And I could hear his footsteps as he walked to the secon staircase and walked up. And there he was, home from work.
Mirrors were expensive objects. So breaking a mirror could cause problems. I never kill Spiders, they eat flies and other vermin. Spiders are also known to bring good luck.
About the eggshells: There was a partly correct explanation in another comment. The version I was told was: There is an old, evil witch who has a large bowl of water. She takes the eggshells that are not crushed/pierced and floats them in her bowl. Then she rocks the bowl so that the eggshells are eventually filled with water and sink. Due to her magic abilities, this results in an actual storm and to (fishing) boats sinking. When you destroy the shells before throwing them away, you foil her evil plan since the eggshells are unusable to begin with. So, there you have it - careful with the shells!
Vardøger is certainly a real phenomenon, and it is not perceived negatively. They act as confirmation that your loved ones will come home even if they are late one day. When you hear vardøger of a family member (usually the same person every time), you know that everything is normal, you don't need to worry.
My grandmother would get vardøger before I came. Her door handle would go down, as if someone were trying to enter the door, and every time it happened it was followed up by either me or my cousin coming ten minutes later. I learned about it because she sometimes would call me up and ask if I was on my way, when I was going to make a surprise visit.
I'm a skeptical atheist by the way. It's just, I can't deny this. It happened several times. This is just one of those things we can't explain.
A Grandmother of a friend of mine saw things other didn't. So when my frien started datein her now husband, her Grandmother said :" Don't worry about him, he has someone that goes in front of him and protect him" And he has Vardøger, I have heard it myself visting them. We haered the sound of a Harley Davidson driving into the yard, we looked out of the window, no-one there. Some minutes later, her husband came driving on his Harlay Davidson .
I am Sami, and I never kill spiders. I catch them in a glass and put them out. There is a Sami legend about a man who was pursued by Stallo, a troll figure who liked to eat people. When the man hid in a cave, a spider came and spun its web in front of the opening. When the stallo saw the spider web he went on, and the man was saved. That is why the spider is considered sacred in Sami tradition.
The reason why one does not wave something white at the Northern Lights is to avoid attracting the attention of the spirits of the Northern Lights. This also comes from Sami mythology. Since the northern lights are visible when it is dark outside, white will be the most visible color. You should generally not wave at all, but at least not if you are wearing white clothes.
Ganding is otherwise a real phenomenon. There are many stories in the Sami areas about people or places who have such a curse cast upon them. Often it is about Sami people being deprived of the right to property that they have used for generations. Since Sami traditionally do not have private property rights (from before the Norwegian authorities entered Sami areas), but communal ownership, no one bought land from others. Everything was based on traditional use and needs. Most of Troms and Finnmark are therefore state property today. A person can therefore buy property from the state but at the same time deprive a Sami person or family of the right to use the property. In such cases, it has happened that the Sami have cast a curse over the place, and buildings that are erected are left empty because so much inexplicable happens on the place that no one can bear to be there. NRK has made a TV series, "Forbannelsen/The Curse" in which a Norwegian and a Sami visit a place associated with Sami superstition, and one of the episodes is about an empty hotel.
Yes I am from Finnmark too, and from my childhood I remember that we where not to tease the Northen Light with something white ... (we still did tough) ... but I strongly do believe that it was from Sami-tradition.
The spider thing is that I learned not to kill Spiders, that brings bad weather ..
There is also Noaide and how they can stop blood, I believe in that as I have a friend that survived a bad accident and they had to stop blood on him aparently .. as he is still alive I do belive that it probably was something in that.
Also I do not touch Quija-bords.. (Spiritisme) many friend did that in the 80's but I don't... I think and belive that we are not suppose to disturb spiritworld.
@@arcticblue248
My grandfather was what you call "læser" (a reader) today. He inherited the knowledge, and is still well known in the area he lived, 35 years after his death. He could stop blood, and saved the life of a man who cut himself in the leg with an axe. The man's daughter contacted me on Facebook and told me about the incident.
@@ahkkariq7406 " I never kill spiders. I catch them in a glass and put them out."
If you catch a House Spider and put it outside, it is the same as kill it, it will not survive.
"Vanlig (liten) husedderkopp er vanlig i våre hjem når høsten kommer, og holder da gjerne til på loftet og i kjelleren. Edderkoppen blir mellom 6 til 10 mm lang og har en kropp som kan påminne litt om en mus i utseende - og kalles derfor iblant for museedderkopp (men er selvsagt mye mindre enn en mus). Vanlig husedderkopp kan bite hvis den blir irritert, men bittet er ikke farlig for mennesker. Husedderkoppene finner vi ofte i våtrom eller i nærheten av avløp - det er imidlertid ikke for at den kom seg inn den veien, men for at den leter etter vann i våre vannfattige hjem. Husedderkoppen har ikke “kommet seg inn” i husene våre, den har sannsynligvis bodd hele sitt liv i våre hus, og vil ikke “bli reddet” eller sluppet ut der den sannsynligvis kommer til å dø."
My father had vardøger.I heard him every day,10 mins before he actually came home.Pretty great if I was doing something he didn't like 😂I even heard his car.
Vardøger is certainly a real phenomenon.
My grandfather was also a Vardøger. We could hear him coughing and walking up the stairs just before he arrived. Then we put on the coffee.
"Vardøger" is kind of...real? I have experinsed it several times myself. I can't explain it at all. The last time was just a couple of monts ago. I have this ramp for a wheel chair outside my house (I'm not in one). And I was at the toilet (of course) and heard VERY distinct footsteps coming up it. So I was suddenly in a hurry to get OFF the toilet. :D Noe one outside at all. about ten min later my father came by, with military boots. The exact same sound. As I said, I can't explain it...but...
Vardøger is essentially "precognition" =) You think you hear someone coming, and then after a few minutes they walk through the door, so you foresaw them coming through the sound you thought you heard =)
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- Here's another odd one...
A girl I went to school with, she's from a little place outside of Trondheim.
She had this thing about not walking over the drain covers.
One day we were out "shopping", I accidentally pushed her wheelchair over a drain cover.
And man, was she pissed!
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I haven't stepped on a drain cover since I was 4. Dunno why or what the consequence would be, but it was deeply ingrained in us that it was bad. If you accidentally step on one you either have to walk around it tree times, then spit in the middle of it. Or you can have a friend punch you in the back 3 times to chase the evil away.
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@rocketpants785
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- Ahh...
That explains why she started doing 'Ring around the Rosie'.
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Personally, I've never felt there was anything remotely evil about drain covers.
Although while out biking, I tend to avoid them on the count of a childhood friend of mine had a nasty fall caused by some punks having removed a drain cover in his path and he didn't manage to veer away or stop in time.
Out walking I usually don't mind them, although I have tripped a few times on drain covers that weren't perfectly leveled.
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But as I see it...
As long as I can walk away from it, I don't really mind if it's not so high on dignity.
Embarrassment only hurts those that take themselves too seriously.
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After my marrige AND divorce, I am VERY careful NOT having a slice of cake standing uprigth!!!! :D
Me too
The cake slice one got me confused. I learned that if the cake slice stand you will soon have a marrige proposual, and if it fall on the side you wont get married this year. 😅
"Bank i bordet"(knock on table) , we say, not knock on wood😅 also wanna add, seeing a Black cat is bad luck, or stepping on a man hole cover in the street is bad luck, because "Do dvergen" (sewer draf) can drag you down into the sewers. I am still scared today, always avoid stepping on them. 😅
3:14
The "f" in "fjøs" is audible, "fjøs" means barn.
10:49
Crushing them might make them eatable by the chickens who needs more calcium.
As for fishermen...
Northern Norwegians generally survived on fishing and the weather is... Challenging...
End of video.
Nøkken and Huldra are not trolls.
He said Trolls and Feys.
Huldra and Nøkken could be considered Fey.
Also, he was talking about nisse being equivalent to a Irish gnome.
Christmas was not all about ancestor worship and the barn gnome. Christmas, or Jul, was celebrated back in the viking days and before. Odin kind of was the "santa claus".. Vardøger was thought to be a spirit that warned of things beforehand back in the old days. Vardøger is something every human should be able to relate to. Thinking of a person and then that person comes right after to where you are for example.
We have celebrated the birth of Jesus for 1000 years. It was the vikings who knew all about paganism, that rejected it.
Used to play that game with the northern lights as a child. A group of children waving the handkerchief at the sky, then starting to panic each other, "I think I see a hand forming, it's coming to grab us, woaaæ!" Then run screaming inside, slamming the door behind us. "Man, we got in just in time. We're playing with fire here. Come on. Let's do it again..." :)
My grandmother used to tell me not to angy the nothern light when i went out to play in the sno in the 80-90's
Some Guys flops cakes on Purpose
I am 64 years old and my dad told me when I was a kid his grandma saw the gnome or as we call it tomten when she was young they lived in the countryside
No one is stupid enough to walk under a ladder. You can get a tool or a paint box in your head. I sailed at sea and there was a lot of superstition. I was not allowed to whistle, could not say the word horse and flowers were forbidden, as they reminded of a funeral. If you whistle, you are calling for a storm. If you smell flowers, the ship is doomed. And rough sailors was really scared.
Vardøger is not a superstition. My grandfather had vardøger, we could hear him knocking the snow off his shoes 5-10 minutes before he arrived. If you went out and checked, there were no tracks in the snow. My grandmother always said: Now he will come soon, I have to put the coffee pot on. It was always right. In the summer it was more rare to hear him coming.
Many still has.
yeah I used to hear my mothers Vardøger (while she was alive), she used to hear mine ... and it was aparently a strong one too. Have not heard anyone elses vardøgers ... not on my siblings or my father (who also are dead now).
Am I right in thinking that one sends his spirit ahead to reassure those he's coming home to?
@@5Gburn No, the one with a vardøger is not aware of that he/she has a vardøger if somebody does not tell.
As a Norwegian I haven’t heard of most of these apart from the more internationally common ones like knocking on wood and breaking mirrors. I don’t know a lot of people who actually believe in superstitions either apart from a small number of superstitions. My sister believes stepping on sewer lids brings bad luck. My grandma believed opening an umbrella indoors was bad. And a lot of my friends who play music or act believe you gotta say “break a leg” before shows because saying “good luck” before a performance means bad luck. But I don’t think I know anyone who actually believes in any other superstitions apart from these.
My parents used to tell me to not eat snow or else I could get worms in my stomach😅
Love from Norway ❤️🇧🇻
A "nisse" (they are best translated as "elfs" or "gnomes", but that is not fully correct) is a type of supernatural creatures who usually look like small men with beard. Some live at farms (fjøsnisse/barn elf), some live in the forest (skognisse/forest elf), some live in the trees which ships were build from, after the ship is build he move to live on the ship (skipsnisse/klabautermann/ship elf). There are many more variants too. Sometimes, they are described as human-like creatures but not human (elves, trolls, giants and those), and other say that they are the ghosts from the first owner of the farm/house or similar. There are still sightings of them and other mythological creatures in Norway to this day.
In regard to the aurora borealis; the sami people's belief is that the light is essentially the souls/spirits of those who have passed, so to draw its attention to you might mean those spirits etc come to claim you, at least that's my understanding as a northern norwegian in regards to where it came from; and yes.. I've never waved at it, nor whistled for it or anything of the sort, why risk it ^^'
As for the spider thing.. Think about what the spider does for us, it helps prevent other bugs in your home etcetc. Our spiders aren't venemous or anything like that so yeah.
Vardøg we have that in the south east too.
The barn-nisse is the barn-gnome. Nisse is the norwegien word for santa. We have julenisse (jul=christmas and nisse=santa)
Its most common to belive in the barn-gnom at farms and farmers.
vardøger is an old norwegian composite word. "var" in this context means aware and "døger" something like sense or feeling. So you have a sense of awareness that someone (or more sinister; something) is comming before it actually happens.
Vardøger is not a superstition, it is a fact. My wife has a very strong one. It takes 21 minutes from the time I hear her on the stairs/entre until she arrives
in person. When I studied and she worked to feed us both, I returned from Uni acople of hours befor she arrived from work. When I first heard her Vardøger
it was the signal for me to start making dinner. Today, 58 years later she is wisiting our daugter, and I still will start dinner as soon as I hear her Vardøger,
that means that she will arrive in 21 minutes.
For the record: I'm an Engineer, I have worked with FACTS for fifty-odd years, and there is not a superstitius bone in my body.
Freiherr Odd B
Sad to see people still believes in magic. We literally know why "vardøger" happens. It's a miscommunication between the left and right hemisphere, causing false memories of "predictions". Notice that not a single person, ever, has written down a "vardøger" before it happens.
I live in norther part of Norway. As kids we were told never to scream at the northern lights cuz it could strike you, so we never did. When it comes to spiders, yes if they are to big and close to us or in our way in the house. We toss them out. Never kill them.
I dont count myself as superstitious, but I’ve experienced the ‘vardøger’ thing sometimes. Very weird. Certain people are preceded by vardøger, others not.
Also, I never, ever put up my umbrella inside!
If you dropped utensils on the floor there meant you would get guest visiting very soon
The cake thing.... I learned that this was only about the first peace cut from the new cake
i always capture the spiders and put them outside if they annoy me inside. if not i let them stay where they are and let them do their job keeping pests away
3:50 it’s called “ rampenisse” in Norway and it’s VERY NAUGHTY 😈 LOL
The cake one- lol. My grandma was more about the deadly importance of cake etiquette but yeah, i did hear the "if the cake flops over you will never marry".
hahaha You'll never find a single Norwegian that believes these things but we have absolutely heard them from our grandparents! :)
I was wondering have you ever visited Norway? I havent watched all the videos so can't help wondering lol. Like your videos btw 😊
To hear about people stepping on white snails is so sad 😢
Back home the superstition about snails goes like this:
- If you step on a black snail it will rain & if you see a white snail, leave it alone(don’t step on it), because then it’ll become sunny ^^
Yeah, I'm from Bergen and have never heard anyone talk about stepping on the white snails. That is super weird and their pretty shells would be broken😔
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- Here's a rather odd one about the (Norwegian) black slugs...
Yes, if you step on one, it will bring rain.
But also if you manage to grab ahold of one of its' tentacles before they retract, it will bring you good luck.
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stepping on a draincover brings bad luck.. personally experienced bad luck right after stepping on one when young.. never stepped on one ever again after.
Svartskogsnegl (Black wood slug) (Arion ater) are plentiful, and you should not step on them, if nothing else because they are huge, and stepping on one is disgusting. Edit: the superstition about the rain reads a lot like a story parents would tell their kids to stop them from doing it. Like the fib people tell kids about not swimming after eating, its for the parents to get some rest.
I never walk under a ladder, brings bad luck.
I'm using a phone rn and so won't have the usual in depth comments.
However, jinx is the same thing in Norway, and we day "knock in (the) table" (yes "in" for some reason even though it's grammatically incorrect in our language as well).
In Norwegian it's "bank i bordet".
(Instead of "bank PÅ bordet"; "på" meaning "on")
We leave the porridge in the barn, this is a tradition on farms.
Where I live we don’t have big snails, only small cute ones😉
My mom knocked on wood and said none of her kids had been seriously ill. The same evening my brother came in complaining over bad stomach ache.
It was his appendix.
She has never knocked on wood since lol
Neither have I😅
I could always hear my uncle 10 minutes before he came home.
It is bad luck to kill a spider because (norwegian) spiders doesnt do anything to humans other than kill and eat flies and other insects. So when you kill the spiders all the annoying house flies etc will irritate you.
I heard a story when the Spider hid baby Jesus from the soldiers during their flight to Egypt. The Spider made the nest to make the cave look old and it is no one there. That is why you should not 2:06
Did forget to mention "Hallj"
We have a saying in Sweden if you kill a spider there will be Rain
Weaving spiders, come not here
"vardøger" is a real phenomena for sure. I have experienced it many times myself. So have many of my friends/family. I think almost everyone have experienced this sometimes in their life. Its really wierd. "vardøger" is a spiritguide that all humans have, and its this spirit that arrives before the human that its connected to. The "Vardøger" exist in a different dimension from ours. I belive in this 100%, because it happened to me so many times.
Me too.
Sad to see people still believes in magic. We literally know why "vardøger" happens. It's a miscommunication between the left and right hemisphere, causing false memories of "predictions". Notice that not a single person, ever, has written down a "vardøger" before it happens.
when i se people beliv in that i thinke ok the persen that is coming home is somone that you dont like ore have to behave a surten way and you probeble know the time arown the pearsen is coming so you kind of psycologikly "get redy"
@@MyggFaen I loved my father,we had a very close bond.I rather think that is the answer.When I was babysitting my friend's kid,we both heard her come home 10 mins before.
@@MyggFaen Jesus. Rest in peace, English language.
Yeah that's odd my mother always made me do that and she Welsh
I have never heard that about waving with things at the horthern ligths it will come and get you. :D BUT, and this is no myth, if you go outside in rhe fall after dark and wave a wite piece of clothing....be prepared for close counter with bats!! It works very well! Done many times, I think bats are cool. :)
I've seen aurora borealis in Oslo several times. Not as strong rhough.
Yeah its true im single and not married cuz of a cake i swear
Can You travel Two Norway
And yeah the Sami Ganding is taken really seriously by some people. Some of course don't belive it, but others have legit used Ganding as a threat. I know a woman who is on very bad foot with someone that eventually threatened to use Ganding- souring the relationship even more.
The english word harbinger explains vardøgg rather well.
The sami population has shamans, just like the Native Americans have. But I belive it is more the elderly in the population that really belives in shamanism.
I always heared the cake on the plate the other way arround. If you take (or are served) a piece of cake and it remains standing on the plate, you are going to get married in the near future.
Norwegians believe, that if you bring a banana on a fishing trip, great misfortune will happen. And when someone whishes you good fishing luck - NEVER say "Thank you". That way you will never catch anything. And Norwegians also believe, that if you utter the name of this animal: 🐴 you are also doomed. A couple of great tips for your next fishing trip, from a dedicated Norwegian angler.
Horse?
yeah I'm never getting married lol
Some People knock on wood and knock on there head
I have two black cats so no superstition here 😂
Keep in mind that using reddit as the only source gives a pretty narrow view.
Its bad luck if you see a black cat walking over the road.
Yey..got the 100 like 😅
my gf are affraid of spiders. when i find one i tell her im throwing them out, but i usually throw them into the shed or the washing room. they protect the house from unwanted insects