JOLABOKAFLOD. Annalisa called my attention to “jolabokaflod”, which translates roughly from Icelandic into English as “Christmas book flood”. This post on the jolabokaflod website gives the history: “Every year since 1944 [the year that Iceland obtained its freedom from Denmark], the Icelandic book trade has published a catalogue – called Bókatíðindi (‘Book Bulletin’, in English) – that is sent to every household in the country in mid-November during the Reykjavik Book Fair. People use the catalogue to order books to give friends and family for Christmas….gifts are opened on 24 December and, by tradition, everyone reads the books they have been given straight away.”
Because of all the books that we exchange at Christmas, Annalisa asked: “Are we sure our blood is not Icelandic at all?” But Mary Jane pointed out that we don’t do the second part of jalabokaflod. We don’t read our new books straight away.
Perhaps this year.
Nick commented: “Amazing–also love the name Bifrost University.”