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The role of almonds in Swedish marital trends

  • December 30th, 2005

The role of almonds in Swedish marital trends

Mikael Johansson, Susanne Vejdemo

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the Swedish folkloristic belief that almonds in the Christmas rice porridge will lead to marriage. We offer a falsification of this hypothesis.
Keywords: Christmas traditions, almonds, porridge, marriage

Introduction

One old folk tradition in Sweden is to eat rice porridge on Christmas Eve. Normally, the porridge is served with a single shelled almond stirred into the porridge. Whoever bites into the almond is supposed to make up a rhyme immediately, and also is believed to marry soon – sometimes said to be before the year ends, or during the coming year.
In [1], an information page from Skansen, a renowned open air museum focusing on Swedish culture and traditions, the following is said about this belief:
“Förr i tiden la man ofta en mandel i gröten och rörde om så att den blev gömd i den fina gröten. Den som fick mandeln sa man skulle bli gift under året.”
”In earlier times, an almond was often put in the porridge and stirred in so that it would be hidden in the nice porridge. Whoever got the almond was said to be married during the year” (translation by the authors)

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Michi is a recent PhD working in homological algebra and applied algebraic topology. This blog is his outlet for texts with some manner of thought put into them. Over at his LiveJournal intimate details and streams of consciousness might be found.
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