I’m one of those European mutts. (I think there are a bunch of those in America if I’m not mistaken) Still, parts of my bloodline are more dominant than others and Norwegian is definitely the largest percent of my heritage.
I grew up surrounded by Scandinavian traditions that were both subtly blended into the fabric of our family life and also paraded around as a BIG deal. the most obvious was the Norwegian prayer we said at dinner time on a regular basis. The less obvious practices were making lefse, celebrating our version of St. Lucia day in December, and saying hello in Norwegian when answering the phone.
In the last year I have returned to those roots with renewed interest. In November my Mom and I took a rosemaling class together. My Mother to brush up on her skills, me to begin learning the art form for the first time. It is a challenging art form to pick up but the results are very rewarding.
The piece pictured above is a very rare 1800s piece that I had the privilege of photographing at the last quarterly meeting of the rosemaling group at Pacific Lutheran University.
