Þorri, The Traditional Food Festival and Mens Day
Like many traditions in Iceland, þorri (translates to “frost” in Icelandic”) has pagan origins. It all starts with the Orkneyinga saga, which deals with a range of topics in what is now mostly Scandinavia but also more broadly Nordic countries in general. Therein, it is outlined that the Kvens (an ethnic minority of Finnish peasants living in Norway) offer a yearly sacrifice to þorri, likely related to Thor, the god of thunder, at mid-winter. This sacrifice was known as þorrablót.…