Part 5

Christmas Day is a quiet day in most of the homes in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. But after Christmas is over the merrymaking begins again. There are more feasts and parties. The children skate, and ski, and coast on their sleds as much as they please, for school is closed during the whole of the Yule season.

2. MID-SUMMER EVE

American girls and boys sometimes dance around a Maypole and crown a queen on the first day of May. The girls and boys of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark have a midsummer holiday when they too dance around a gaily decorated pole, but they are not celebrating the coming of May. They are greeting the long summer day.

In the long ago people believed that June twenty-third was the day on which Odin, the sun god, won in the fight against the frost giants. So they danced and sang in praise of Odin. And people of those lands have kept up the old custom.

The school children of one Swedish town were gay and happy on the twenty-third of June. The big boys set up a tall pole in a field near the schoolhouse. Then a crowd of girls and boys tied branches of fir, spruce, and pine on the pole. They put bright flowers among the green branches.

When the pole was bright with the evergreen and flowers, a troop of girls and boys came from the schoolhouse and played games on the grass around the Maypole. But the greatest fun would come after dark. So early in the afternoon they hurried home to dress in their gayest costumes to be ready for the frolic that night.

Grown-ups came to the night celebration too. The dance lasted far into the night, for all through those northern lands there is no darkness on the midsummer eve. The sun shines all through the night in the places far to the north, but even in the southern part of Sweden where these children live, the sun was gone but a few hours. During those hours while the sun was gone, the sky was almost as bright as day with twilight.

3. AN AMERICAN FOURTH OF JULY IN DENMARK

In one town in Denmark, some girls and boys are as eager for the Fourth of July as American girls and boys are. For, like many American girls and boys, on that day they are going to a picnic in a park. Yes, they are going to a Fourth-of-July picnic and a picnic as much like an American picnic as they can have. About the only things missing from their picnic are firecrackers. The law of Denmark will not permit firecrackers.

The park is called The American National Park. The bands play patriotic American music. The people sing American patriotic songs, “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America.” Speakers tell about America and how our country won independence. The Stars and Stripes float in the breeze with the Danish flag of red and white. People play ball and run races. They eat lunches from big lunch baskets.

One American visitor asked, “Who are the people celebrating our Independence Day?” If you asked that question at the park, and a Danish boy answered, the answer would be, “This is the Danish-American Club.” Have you ever heard of Danish-American clubs in America? The members of Danish-American clubs in America are people who have come from Denmark to live in America. The Danish-American Club in Denmark is made up of Danish people who have lived in America at some time and Danish people who have relatives living in America.

Svend is one boy you might meet at a Fourth of July picnic in Denmark. Svend was born in the city of Chicago in the United States. His father and mother were both born in Denmark, but they lived in America about ten years. Svend’s father studied in the United States and learned to be a librarian.

Svend was only four years old when he went to Denmark to live. Of course Svend could speak English then. But when he was old enough to go to school, he began speaking Danish all the time. His father wanted him to speak English at home so that he would not forget the English words. Svend said, “Oh, if I speak English, the boys call me a _foreigner_.” Svend was only seven years old when he said that. When he is older he will study English in the schools of Denmark. Then perhaps he will be proud that he can speak English easily.

Svend’s father takes care of a library for the Danish-American Club. In his library are many, many books telling about how Denmark and America work together. Some of the books are written in Danish and some are written in English. Both Danish-American clubs in Denmark and Danish-American clubs in America give money to support the park and the library.

Svend’s father is glad to take Svend to the Danish-American picnic on the Fourth of July each year, for he wants Svend to love America, the land where he was born.

Karl is another boy at the picnic. He is fifteen years old. He speaks English very well from his study in school. Karl’s family go to the Fourth of July picnic because Karl’s uncle lives in America. Karl writes to his cousins in the United States. From them he has learned many things about our country.

Travelers in Denmark sometimes go to the Fourth of July picnic. They cannot feel strange on that picnic ground with the many American flags and the American songs.

Winter Sports in the North Land

1. WITH THE SKI-JUMPERS

No sooner had Olaf entered the room where stood his Yule-tree than his eyes lighted on a big package standing behind the tree. “Skis,” he thought, “surely no other present could make such a huge package. But was _his_ name on that package?”

Finally the moment came when his father called, “For Olaf,” and the big box was in Olaf’s hands. Olaf lost no time in opening the prize package. His eyes shone as he saw the new skis. At last he had a pair of skis fit for any ski-jumper!

Olaf had often watched ski-jumpers leap in the air like a bird and land safely on runners many feet away and go sliding gracefully down a steep hillside. Now he too could learn to be a ski-jumper!

Like most children of Norway and Sweden, Olaf had learned to run on skis when he was very young. By the time he had started to school, he could run very well. On that Christmas morning, Olaf’s little sister, only three years old, got a pair of skis too. Olaf gave her the first pair of skis he had used and she played in the snow on them, while Olaf tried his larger and finer pair.

Skiing is the favorite play of the boys at Olaf’s school. Near the school are skiing grounds where Olaf and his classmates play at recess time. At first, of course, those boys ran on small hills. Then they practised on longer slopes. Olaf’s father had said, “You must know how to handle your skis well before you begin ski-jumping.” Now Olaf did know how to run well on skis and he had the best kind of skis for jumping.

Olaf lives in Norway and nowhere in the world do people have better skiing grounds. The snows come in November and stay until March or April, and the mountain slopes make long skiing tracks. The weather too is good for skiing. Although the weather is cold enough to keep the snow for many months, the cold is not severe enough to keep sport lovers indoors.

Skiing is not merely a child’s sport in Norway. Olaf’s father and mother both ski. Many business men and their wives ski; farmers and their wives ski; the King and Queen ski. Norwegians and the Lapps of the far north often travel on skis. Such travel is easy. With knapsacks filled with food and strapped to their backs, travellers make long excursions in a short time. So Olaf lives in a country which might truly be called, “the home of the skis.”

The first Sunday after that Christmas when Olaf got his new skis, Olaf, his father, and his mother went to a long skiing ground about a five-mile ride from their home in Oslo. They left their home very early in the morning. They stood in line with many other men, women, and children waiting for the train. What a queer crowd it was! Sticking up over each head were the points of skis which looked like stubby trees. No wonder one passer-by said the sight was like “a forest of a thousand trees.”

Then the train came with a special car to carry the skis, and the merry crowd was off for the day. Olaf got his first lesson in ski-jumping.

But it was in February that Olaf got his greatest treat of the year. Oslo is near the bottom of the long narrow country and on the side away from the sea. The land around Oslo is hilly but the slopes are not very steep. One mountain for skiing is about an hour’s ride on an electric car from Oslo. On this mountain the youths of Norway gather in February each year to hold a skiing contest. So in February Olaf and his parents with thousands and thousands of people from all over countries of the north went to see the ski-jumping contest.

The jumpers gathered at the top of the long mountainside. Each contestant wore a number fastened across his chest telling his place in the contest. At a signal from an officer number one ran down the hill to a bank of snow called the “take-off” station. When he got to the “take-off,” he jumped into the air. Olaf watched him breathlessly. Yes, he landed on his feet. The crowd cheered heartily. An officer ran out with a measuring rod to see how far he was from the “take-off” when he landed on his feet again.

Then the other jumpers came in turn. Several failed to land on their feet. But most of them laughed with the people looking on over their failures even though they must have hated badly to lose.

The longest jump that day, and the longest that had ever been made at that time, was two hundred and thirty-five feet. That is a long jump, but, no doubt, some of the schoolboys who were watching the jumpers will beat that record in a few years. Some of Olaf’s playmates were able then to jump eighty feet. They are eagerly waiting to be old enough to enter the big contest.

The boys learned much by watching expert ski-jumpers. One of their favorite jumpers is the King’s son, Prince Olaf. Prince Olaf was in the big contest several times when he was a young man. The boys often saw Prince Olaf on skis. One day the Prince stopped where Olaf and his playmates were practising and told them how to hold their feet to make a safe landing. Olaf never forgot what the Prince said. And he was glad too that his mother had named him _Olaf_.

2. WITH THE SKATERS

A line of skaters on a waterway of Sweden was set for a race. The skaters looked more like huge white birds than the young boys they were. Each skater wore heavy skates and held tightly to a frame of a large white sail.

Away they flew over the smooth ice! The strong wind which blows over the lands carried them along swiftly. Most of the boys were skillful in guiding their course with the wind and keeping on the clear ice. But here and there a skater had trouble. One skater was tossed to the bank; another was sent sprawling on the hard ice, for the wind does not deal too gently with those who cannot follow its path.

When the race was over, the winner was hoisted in the air and cheered. The skaters went their way to try again another day.

Skaters in Denmark use sails too. The flat lands have such strong winds that sail skating is great sport for Danish children. But even in the flat lands of Denmark there are days when the sail skaters are disappointed. They gather for a race to find no wind that day; and, of course, no wind means no race.

But sail skating is only a part of the skating fun in those northern lands. Children all over Norway, Sweden, and Denmark skate during the winter months. In many places playgrounds are flooded to make safe skating grounds for the girls and boys. On the safe ice even the tiny girls and boys slide on the ice and ride on the chair-like sleds which are pushed along by the larger girls and boys.

The children of those northern lands learn early that outdoor sports help to build strong and healthy bodies.

At School in the Far North

As the clocks struck eight one Monday late in August the big gates to the school grounds swung open. With a shout waiting boys ran through one gate to a playground which they had not seen for several weeks. Crowds of girls ran through a gate to another playground on the other side of that same schoolhouse.

That August day was the first day of school for girls and boys in nearly every city and town in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

Girls and boys who live in those countries do not have such long summer vacations as have American girls and boys. Many of them go to school until the first of July and come back to school again in the last week of August. They go to school more days each week, too, than do American children. They go to school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

They start to school each morning after a very early breakfast. In winter all the children of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark must dress and eat their breakfast by electric lights, and go along the streets to school while the street lights are still burning. Of course, those girls and boys in the far northern part of Norway and Sweden work by electric light in their classrooms all the winter days.

With such an early breakfast, the pupils are hungry by the middle of the morning. They are given a lunch time around ten thirty or eleven o’clock each day. Many girls and boys eat a lunch at the schoolhouse, but others go home for a lunch which they call “breakfast” even though they had eaten an earlier meal. The younger pupils go home from school about one o’clock and the older pupils leave school each day about three o’clock.

Schoolhouses in the lands far to the north look much like American schoolhouses. Of course all the schoolhouses in those countries do not look alike any more than do the school buildings in America.

1. AT SCHOOL IN NORWAY

Harold lives in Oslo, Norway. He is in the third grade. All the pupils in his room are boys and the teacher is a man.

The first day of school was a busy one for Harold. When the boys were in the room the teacher said, “Write your name on the paper which I shall give you.” Harold wrote his name in clear letters.

After the teacher got the names of all the boys he said, “Now I shall tell you what lessons you will have each day. You may write them down on a time plan.”

Harold and his classmates knew what a “time plan” is. The storekeepers in the bookstores had given them pretty picture cards with blank places on them where the pupils could write the names of the subjects and the time at which each would recite. So when the teacher told them the lessons they would have each day they wrote them on their time plans. Harold’s time plan looked like the one shown here.

Most of the subjects the Norwegian girls and boys study in the third grade are the same as those which American pupils study in the third grade. American girls and boys study English; but on Harold’s time plan instead of English is _Norsk_. Norsk is the name for the language of Norway.

In one of the reading texts which many children read the first picture is a flag of Norway. Across the page from the picture is a poem about Norway. The poem is in Norsk of course. Children in Norway learn that poem so that they can say it without looking at the words.

Ja, vi elsker dette landet, som det stiger frem, furet, værbitt, over vannet, med de tusen hjem; elsker, elsker det og tenker på vår far og mor og den saganatt som senker drømme på vår jord!

(Yes, we love with fond devotion Norway’s mountain domes, Rising stormlashed o’er the ocean, With their thousand homes; Love our country while we’re bending Thoughts to fathers grand, And to saga night that’s sending Dreams upon our land, And to saga night that’s sending, Sending dreams upon our land.)

On the seventeenth of May each year the Norwegian girls and boys march through the streets carrying flags and singing “Ja, vi elsker dette landet.” The seventeenth of May to them is what the Fourth of July is to us. It is their Independence Day.

For many, many years Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were governed by one king. But in 1905 Norwegians became free to govern themselves. They chose a king for their country. On the seventeenth of May each year school children of Oslo and towns near Oslo parade past the palace of the King. The King watches their parade. The children stand very quietly then while the King speaks to them about Norway, their country.

Harold’s sister is in the seventh grade. Her time plan is shown on page 137.

Many pupils in the seventh grade find English to be their hardest subject. Only a few English words are like Norsk words which they speak. On the time plan you see the names of the days of the week—Mandag (Monday), Tirsdag (Tuesday), Onsdag (Wednesday), Torsdag (Thursday), Fredag (Friday), Lørdag (Saturday), Søndag (Sunday). They are much like English names for the days of the week.

Norwegian pupils soon learn the English word “summer,” for the Norsk word is “sommer.” They soon can say “come,” for in Norsk they say “komme,” and “Many thanks” which in Norsk is “Mange takke.”

The Norwegians did not get words from the English, however. The English got words from the Norwegians. Long, long ago some people from these northern lands went to live in the land of the English people. From them the English learned to use some of the old Norsk words and they have kept some of those words in their language. English settlers brought the English language to America, so Americans too use those old Norsk words.

The Norwegian pupils have a hard time learning to pronounce words which have the letter “w,” for “w” is not used in the Norsk language. The English word “warm” is “varme,” “work” is “verke,” “wash” is “vaske,” “window” is “vindue,” “west” is “vest,” and “well” is “vel.”

But, of course, many, many other English words are not at all like Norsk words.

2. IN SWEDISH SCHOOLS

Greda was very happy one morning as she went to school. She carried a small bundle in her hand as she hurried along. When she entered her classroom she whispered to the teacher, “Today is my birthday.” Then the teacher brought out a small stand just big enough to hold the little Swedish flag which Greda took out of her bundle. As Greda put the flag into the flag holder, her classmates said, “Happy birthday, Greda,” and sang a song to the flag.

In that Swedish school girls and boys study almost the same subjects as the Norwegian girls and boys study. When winter comes and snow covers the hills, the skiing teacher comes to school every day. Now skiing sounds like play, but it is a school study for girls and boys in those North lands.

Girls and boys of Norway and Sweden want to be good ski runners and ski jumpers. They begin to ski when they are very young. The young children run only on small hills near the school. The older girls and boys go out to longer mountainsides for their practice.

Of course many pupils get tumbles in the snow as they learn to run on skis. The teacher says, “To be a good ski runner, you must have courage to try, and if you fail, you must laugh and try again.”

Some children of the North lands go to school in the summer too. But the summer school is very different from the regular school. “Summer school is much more fun,” Martha, a Swedish girl, said after she had spent a summer in a camp and had studied with a camp teacher. Her brother Nils likes camp school too.

Martha and Nils are twins. They were nine years old when they went to the summer camp.

That summer Martha picked gooseberries. She learned to make gooseberry pie, gooseberry jelly, and gooseberry preserves. Nils only helped to take the stems off the berries, but he thought that was fun when he worked with the other girls and boys of the camp.

Nils helped to repair the roof on one of the summerhouses. That roof was of red tile. Nils carefully measured and fitted each piece of tile into its proper place.

Nils helped some of the older boys to build a boat. He had his first lesson in rowing in that very boat too.

But both Martha and Nils liked best the foot races which the girls and boys of the camp ran every day. Martha was the best runner of the girls and Nils had a good record too even though he ran with boys larger than himself.

3. AT SCHOOL IN DENMARK

If you were to see a group of school children in a Danish town you would find that they look very much like the Norwegian children and the Swedish children. They look much like girls and boys in America too.

Those children study about the same subjects that the Norwegian and Swedish girls and boys study. They study from books written in Danish. Danish words and Norwegian words are alike in print, but the Danes and the Norwegians do not pronounce them alike.

Since an island is a small body of land with water all around it, and Denmark has so many islands, many girls and boys in Denmark live near water. Since there is so much water in Denmark almost all Danish pupils learn to swim at school. They begin swimming lessons when they first enter school.

In Copenhagen, which is Denmark’s largest city, the schools have swimming contests. On the day of the contests classes from different schools gather at the water front. A high board wall has been built around a part of the water so that the place for the contests looks much like a pool. Mothers and fathers sit on the platform near the walls and watch the contests. Danish flags fly in the breeze. Everybody is excited when the contest begins.

The older girls and boys in the schools in Copenhagen, like those in Oslo, study English. One day each month a librarian visits each school in the city to take books to the pupils. She takes story books written in Danish to the younger pupils. But to the older pupils she takes books written in other languages which they have studied. Some of the books are written in French, some in German, and some in English. Those Danish pupils read some of the same stories that American pupils read in their libraries.

In an Open-Air Museum

Girls and boys always listen when grandfather begins a tale with, “When I was a boy.” But many times the girls and boys who listen to grandfather’s tales find it hard to make pictures in their minds of the houses grandfather tells about, of the games he played, or of the dances he and grandmother danced. And it is much, much harder to understand when grandfather and grandmother tell the tales that their grandfathers and grandmothers have told them!

Many Swedish children go to a museum each year to see how their great-great-great-grandparents actually lived. For in that northern country—and in Norway too—people have built museums which are different from America’s big buildings with their many showcases filled with things of long ago. They have built what they call open-air museums.