Saturday, December 8, 2007

Julemarked Århus

We wandered out to the Århus city (Byens) Christmas market (Julemarked) today in search of Christmas spirit and presents. The comparable Christmas fair in Austin, the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, is an annual favorite, so we thought we would see what this one looked like -- both had a lot of crafts, but this one a lot less art, and a lot more clothes. No music here, though. One of the fun things about the Armadillo is all the good local bands that perform.

Still it was very festive, as you can see in the second photo. It was held in a former military horse riding pavilion (the Ridehuset) that is now frequently used for such things. We went to a natural foods exposition there a while ago.

It was fun. Although Scandinavia is very secular these days, they are big on tradition, so all the non-religious aspects of Christmas are still very important. Red hearts are a traditional motif, which we have always had on our tree at home, since Sandy has been way into Scandinavian Christmas stuff for a long -- sort of a professional side effect for an old Norse person. She has been collecting some more Christmas stuff to take home.

It was also a nice sunny day, which is rarer these days, so we walked around quite a bit, taking photos of places that we had meant to look at before we leave for the USA again. These two little dragons glaring at each other over a doorway, for example, are on one of the main bus lines, and I always look for them as a favorite landmark.

There is a bittersweet quality to our last week here. Just by the time we have gotten to know Århus a bit, and really come to like it, it is time to head home. But our son Rolf is getting married in Utah on December 28 to Kristy Money of Provo, and there is suddenly a lot to do, although fortunately tradition assigns most of the work to the mother of the bride, so we are getting by fairly easy.

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