Lørdagsgodt

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Children in Norway, Sweden and Finland are only allowed to have candy on Saturdays. Again from our visit with friends this weekend it came to our attention this is a Norwegian custom after our friends' children were handed candy. They were enthusiastic when their mother held up cups of candy when they stopped jumping on their trampoline and ran to get some candy. We started talking about their "Saturday candy" and I questioned what "Saturday candy" was. We don't celebrate this in America, so it had my curiosity. It's called Lørdagsgodt in Norwegian which translates to Saturday candy. I was told that Saturday was their favorite day of the week as children because they knew they'd get candy or as they got older they'd be given money to go buy candy.

I know I certainly couldn't live up to only having candy one day a week, so I had to ask the parents what they do and where they hide their stash - candy stash, of course! They told me where it was and said their children are too small to reach it and they say they usually wait to eat candy after the kids go to bed, but occasionally they'll slip up and one of the kids will ask, "What are you eating?" and they'll have to fib to the kids.

In America, it's a bit different and I don't remember my parents limiting how much candy I ate or when I ate it. I think it's relatively common for children to be in a check out line at a store like Walmart with their parents and being told to pick out a 78 cent candy bar. I also think it depends on the parents' influence on the child  in USA. Some parents may be very health conscious on their kids and others may be relaxed. Some may unfortunately reward their children with unhealthy food and some may reward an unruly child with candy just to get them to calm down - thus positively enforcing the negative behavior.

I'm just glad I figured this custom out now before children came into the picture for us. I can see how this could lead to an awkward situation.

So there you have it - Lørdagsgodt in a nutshell!

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