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Christmas
Norway, 25th Dec, 2000
Preparations begin weeks before the festival season. The special
Christmas beer, Juleol, is brewed; traditional dishes are
prepared; cakes, biscuits, cookies, are baked together with the
julekake, the sweet Christmas bread filled with raisins,
candied peel and cardamom. Christmas celebration itself begins with
the solemn reading of the gospel for Christmas Day, perhaps from
a family Bible that is several hundred years old. As soon as the
mass ends, the family sits down for a traditional meal, prepared
before mass. Children, takes this special moment to exchange gifts.
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