Mug Shot — «Norway - Norwegian Mittens»

Country: Norway Edition: 2008 Icon Edition Belongs to: 416 users (24 trading, 141 seeking)

Norway is a Scandinavian unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island. It is the 2nd least densely populated country in Europe. The country shares border with Sweden, Finland, Russia and the Skagerrak Strait to the south, with Denmark on the other side. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is laced with fjords, a renowned part of its landscape. The capital city Oslo is the largest in the nation, with a population of 650 thousand. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, fresh water, and hydropower. Two centuries of Viking raids to southern and western areas tapered off following the adoption of Christianity in AD 994. Norway expanded its control overseas to parts of Britain, Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland. Norwegian power peaked in 1265, but competition from the Hanseatic League and the spread of the Black Death weakened the country. In 1380, Norway was absorbed into a union with Denmark that lasted more than four centuries. In 1814, Norwegians resisted the cession of their country to Sweden and adopted a constitution. Sweden went to war with Norway but agreed to let Norway keep its constitution in return for accepting a union under a Swedish king. Later Norway demanded independence, which it gained in a referendum in 1905. Norway remained neutral in World War I. Despite its declaration of neutrality in World War II, Norway was occupied for 5 years by forces of Nazi Germany. In 1949, it abandoned neutrality becoming a founding member of NATO. Discovery of oil in adjacent waters in the late 1960s boosted Norway's economic fortunes. The country maintains a welfare model with universal health care, subsidised higher education, and a comprehensive social security system. Key domestic issues include maintaining the country's extensive social safety net with an aging population, preserving economic competitiveness, and immigration and the integration of ethnic minorities. The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and its member countries and is also a part of the Schengen Area. The country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world. On a per-capita basis, it is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside the Middle East. Norway was classified as the most democratic country by the Democracy Index.

FRONT: Knitted Christmas mittens with pattern
The tradition of knitting garments with woollen yarn of two or more colours reaches back to the 1850s, and the resulting patterns on knitted sweaters and cardigans are generally viewed as Norwegian, especially if they have so-called "lice" - dots in a darker colour contrasting with a lighter background - together with borders of eight-petalled roses. Most of these "Norwegian" knitted garments were first created in the 20th century, again including many local and regional variants. Knitting is also closely associated with the ideal of a knitting woman as a hard-working mother, grandmother, sister or daughter, showing concern and kindness for those close to her. It is hardly a coincidence that the 1950s and '60s, which can be thought of as the "housewife decades" of Norwegian history, made up the period where school pictures show most of the children wearing homemade Norwegian sweaters and cardigans. Knitting needles were never far from the Norwegian mother of that period.The Norwegian pride in knitting traditions is exploited to the full in souvenir production, and serves as a foundation for modern design.
BACK: Cross country skiing
In the 1870s, Sondre Norheim from Morgedal in Telemark revolutionised skiing and introduced the dicipline we today know as telemark skiing. Morgedal has therefore been named the cradle of ski sports and was a natural place for the Olympic flame to be lit before the Winter Olympics at Lillehammer in 1994. Norwegian polar explorers Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen have made a significant contribution to the existing national pride in ski sport. Roald Amundsen was the first man in history to reach the South Pole. After crossing Greenlands's inland frozen wasteland from east to west, the great explorer Nansen wrote that “skiing is the most national of all Norwegian sports, and what a fantastic sport it is too. If any sport deserves to be called the sport of all sports, it is surely this one”. Today it is said that Norwegians are born with skis on their feet. Not quite true, but as a family activity and the number one winter sport, skiing is very important. Most children start learning the skill when they are very young and Norwegians rush to the mountains and forests to ski every chance they get.
Mug has been introduced in January 2014.

photo by mobydick74
edited by anonymous

  norway, MIT

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