Nobody expects food, unless it’s announced beforehand. That said, it’s unusual for people to eat when they’re visiting and as a Norwegian, I never eat a meal at home without offering something to my guests.
If I could get a job offer, I’d bring Texas bbq to Norway and invite everyone I meet to come partake in the only good thing about the south.
I find this odd, I emigrated to Norway a year ago and I can’t think of an occasion I haven’t been offered food at somebody’s house or had food brought to me! Strange.
I guess I just know lovely Norwegians!
After a post on r/norge some days ago it’s come to my attention that this actually seems to be the case for a suprising ammount of the comments. I’ve never experienced this myself, although it’s not normal to visit unannounced around dinner time. Usually visitors come over at a time where it’s more fitting to serve coffee with cake/lefse/vaffel. “would you like some coffee” is usually the first line of dialog when someone arrives.
Why did you remove the name of the creator?
The data has no good source and is most likely pulled out of their ass.
Please don’t spread misinformation for karma farming.
It’s usually coffee and cake isn’t it?
I was wondering how long it would take this “meme” to surface here considering it’s already made it’s rounds on Tumblr.
I’ve lived in Norway for a bit over 3 years now and for the most if you’re at someone’s house around dinner time you’ll be asked if you would like to eat.
This is in my experience not accurate at all. Not when I grew up and not now.
More importantly, what the fuck is Iceland doing?
Never ever have i had food offered to me as a kid playing at my schoolmates homes
It was like:
Mom told me to come and eat, just wait here…
«Insert 30min later meme»
This map is true, just like Iceland is an island off the coast of France.
This is a meme made from a Reddit post about a Swede that as a kid was waiting in his friend’s room while his friend ate dinner. People were shocked that was a thing.
Someone then screenshotted it and posted it on Twitter and suddenly another 3 million morons were shocked by Nordic people doing this and to them it seemed like Scandinavians basically don’t feed hungry children.
By then nobody knew what the comment was about or the fact that in the Nordic countries, where children get plenty of food, you don’t feed other people’s children without asking the parents, to not spoil their appetite before they go back home to their family dinner.
It is a question of politeness in a modern society where food is plenty. A society where nobody kills school children with AR-15s every other week and people don’t get angry by fake memes or customs they don’t understand.
In my childhood it was definitely like this. When dinner time comes around, the guests have to leave. Not so much anymore, Because eating together is usually the reason for coming over.
People in the comments of this insta account repeatedly call it out for bad data sourcing. I mean all they do is use crap poles in the comments or smth. And the owner refuses to rectify their maps.
If I’m making food while I have a guest it would be absurd not to share with them, not to mention rude.
You might aswell just say to them “You don’t matter”
That being said, if we’re doing something that has nothing to do with food, it would be kinda strange to just ask if they are hungry.
I wonder if it is more the case that meet ups usually have a purpose that is talked about prior.
Just hanging out without a planned activity is more common among teenagers and kids.
As a kid we always needed to get food at our own house. As an adult you always get offered coffee.
“Very unlikely” is an exaggeration i feel like. It definitely happend a few times as i can remember, mostly to the same friends house because his dad was very stingy (and no they were not poor).
90% of the times i was offered food, and my parents always offered my friends food.
as a kid, yes, as an adult, no
I don’t have kids, so I can’t answer for the present, but as a Norwegian kid in the late nineties I very often waited in my friend’s room while they ate (or got sent home).
From someone who has grown up in a small town outside of a “big” city then this has never been true. The only times in my entire childhood where i havent been given Food/dinner is when i have refused it myself since i either felt rude or that i have had dinner waiting at home and have been afraid my mom would have been angry if i came home full (the time before cellphones)
Not being given food at all is usually seen as uncommon in my experience.
Though it depends on when you visit. If the homeowners don’t eat you usually won’t be offered food.
But if you visit during mealtimes you’ll be offered food almost every time in my experience.
Would be 10 kilos lighter if not for all the dinners and waffles with coffee. I’ve always felt Norwegians were hospitable in their homes and treated me as a guest. Even after my dog attacked another man’s dog long ago on Askøy the guy offered us a snack when we came to apologize and pay the vet bill..
What I will say is the chance to randomly get invited in by a stranger is about 0. Whereas that has happened to me in Portugal, Italy and France when out on the countryside or in small towns.
Moving to norway as a kid I did experience a few times where I was at a friends house and I had to wait like 30-45 mins in his room while he ate with the family.
Comparing it with the Mediterranean where I lived before (also where they force food onto every guest) this was absurd for me at the time. Then I realised this happens cause most kids are expected to go home to eat with their families.
Shit, I plan to move to one of the Nordic Countries (Norway & Finland are at the top of my list) due to….current events in the US and well my Danish & Swedish friends told me that Nordic people are the complete opposite to Latin Americans as well let’s just say we Latin Americans can be very sociable and open.
This is definitely true in my experience, I either had to leave, or wait.
If we have guests, we don’t eat at all until they’re gone.
If this is based on like… Unplanned/unannounced visits where someone just shows up then probably accurate, But uh, If you invite someone over, at least in my social circles the standard is that you offer food if you’re eating when they’re there, Not doing so is a massive dick move
I think this is also closely related to the culture surrounding visits. As far as I know it is still common (and both accepted and welcomed) to make unannounced visits to people in the south.
In Norway this is almost a faux pas – you call or text in advance and ask if it’s okay to come over. Part of this communication might then also include a discussion about whether to have a meal together.
It used to be much more normal and accepted to just show up at peoples houses, and you would normally be offered at least coffee and a piece of cake or other snack. I can’t say if this is still normal in parts of the country, but at least in and around the big cities you just don’t do this.
28 comments
Nobody expects food, unless it’s announced beforehand. That said, it’s unusual for people to eat when they’re visiting and as a Norwegian, I never eat a meal at home without offering something to my guests.
If I could get a job offer, I’d bring Texas bbq to Norway and invite everyone I meet to come partake in the only good thing about the south.
I find this odd, I emigrated to Norway a year ago and I can’t think of an occasion I haven’t been offered food at somebody’s house or had food brought to me! Strange.
I guess I just know lovely Norwegians!
After a post on r/norge some days ago it’s come to my attention that this actually seems to be the case for a suprising ammount of the comments. I’ve never experienced this myself, although it’s not normal to visit unannounced around dinner time. Usually visitors come over at a time where it’s more fitting to serve coffee with cake/lefse/vaffel. “would you like some coffee” is usually the first line of dialog when someone arrives.
Why did you remove the name of the creator?
The data has no good source and is most likely pulled out of their ass.
Please don’t spread misinformation for karma farming.
It’s usually coffee and cake isn’t it?
I was wondering how long it would take this “meme” to surface here considering it’s already made it’s rounds on Tumblr.
I’ve lived in Norway for a bit over 3 years now and for the most if you’re at someone’s house around dinner time you’ll be asked if you would like to eat.
This is in my experience not accurate at all. Not when I grew up and not now.
More importantly, what the fuck is Iceland doing?
Never ever have i had food offered to me as a kid playing at my schoolmates homes
It was like:
Mom told me to come and eat, just wait here…
«Insert 30min later meme»
This map is true, just like Iceland is an island off the coast of France.
This is a meme made from a Reddit post about a Swede that as a kid was waiting in his friend’s room while his friend ate dinner. People were shocked that was a thing.
Someone then screenshotted it and posted it on Twitter and suddenly another 3 million morons were shocked by Nordic people doing this and to them it seemed like Scandinavians basically don’t feed hungry children.
By then nobody knew what the comment was about or the fact that in the Nordic countries, where children get plenty of food, you don’t feed other people’s children without asking the parents, to not spoil their appetite before they go back home to their family dinner.
It is a question of politeness in a modern society where food is plenty. A society where nobody kills school children with AR-15s every other week and people don’t get angry by fake memes or customs they don’t understand.
In my childhood it was definitely like this. When dinner time comes around, the guests have to leave. Not so much anymore, Because eating together is usually the reason for coming over.
People in the comments of this insta account repeatedly call it out for bad data sourcing. I mean all they do is use crap poles in the comments or smth. And the owner refuses to rectify their maps.
If I’m making food while I have a guest it would be absurd not to share with them, not to mention rude.
You might aswell just say to them “You don’t matter”
That being said, if we’re doing something that has nothing to do with food, it would be kinda strange to just ask if they are hungry.
I wonder if it is more the case that meet ups usually have a purpose that is talked about prior.
Just hanging out without a planned activity is more common among teenagers and kids.
As a kid we always needed to get food at our own house. As an adult you always get offered coffee.
“Very unlikely” is an exaggeration i feel like. It definitely happend a few times as i can remember, mostly to the same friends house because his dad was very stingy (and no they were not poor).
90% of the times i was offered food, and my parents always offered my friends food.
as a kid, yes, as an adult, no
I don’t have kids, so I can’t answer for the present, but as a Norwegian kid in the late nineties I very often waited in my friend’s room while they ate (or got sent home).
From someone who has grown up in a small town outside of a “big” city then this has never been true. The only times in my entire childhood where i havent been given Food/dinner is when i have refused it myself since i either felt rude or that i have had dinner waiting at home and have been afraid my mom would have been angry if i came home full (the time before cellphones)
Not being given food at all is usually seen as uncommon in my experience.
Though it depends on when you visit. If the homeowners don’t eat you usually won’t be offered food.
But if you visit during mealtimes you’ll be offered food almost every time in my experience.
Would be 10 kilos lighter if not for all the dinners and waffles with coffee. I’ve always felt Norwegians were hospitable in their homes and treated me as a guest. Even after my dog attacked another man’s dog long ago on Askøy the guy offered us a snack when we came to apologize and pay the vet bill..
What I will say is the chance to randomly get invited in by a stranger is about 0. Whereas that has happened to me in Portugal, Italy and France when out on the countryside or in small towns.
Moving to norway as a kid I did experience a few times where I was at a friends house and I had to wait like 30-45 mins in his room while he ate with the family.
Comparing it with the Mediterranean where I lived before (also where they force food onto every guest) this was absurd for me at the time. Then I realised this happens cause most kids are expected to go home to eat with their families.
Shit, I plan to move to one of the Nordic Countries (Norway & Finland are at the top of my list) due to….current events in the US and well my Danish & Swedish friends told me that Nordic people are the complete opposite to Latin Americans as well let’s just say we Latin Americans can be very sociable and open.
This is definitely true in my experience, I either had to leave, or wait.
If we have guests, we don’t eat at all until they’re gone.
If this is based on like… Unplanned/unannounced visits where someone just shows up then probably accurate, But uh, If you invite someone over, at least in my social circles the standard is that you offer food if you’re eating when they’re there, Not doing so is a massive dick move
I think this is also closely related to the culture surrounding visits. As far as I know it is still common (and both accepted and welcomed) to make unannounced visits to people in the south.
In Norway this is almost a faux pas – you call or text in advance and ask if it’s okay to come over. Part of this communication might then also include a discussion about whether to have a meal together.
It used to be much more normal and accepted to just show up at peoples houses, and you would normally be offered at least coffee and a piece of cake or other snack. I can’t say if this is still normal in parts of the country, but at least in and around the big cities you just don’t do this.