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Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5089 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian
| Message 41 of 338 23 August 2012 at 12:42am | IP Logged |
This time I'd like to ask a cultural question. At Assimil lesson 12 it is said that Norwegians have coffee and cake at about 7pm, usually two hours after their main course, middag. How is it so? Does it mean Norwegians have dinner at 5pm and it's called middag (=noon) and it's the most important meal? I'd just like to understand the routine. Here the most important meal is lunch, at noon. Most people have a light breakfast or none at all, and only snacks for dinner as well. In some other countries it's the breakfast that is the most important meal.
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| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6543 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish
| Message 42 of 338 23 August 2012 at 8:03am | IP Logged |
It's true that the main meal is around 5:00 or after work. Since it is called middag, I assume it was probably around lunchtime back when everyone was a farmer, but now that people work in offices and factories, it's more convenient to have it after work. When I worked on farms though, it was often around 3:00 or 3:30. I've never heard about this cake and coffee for supper thing. It's usually sandwiches in my experience.
Actually, I find what Norwegians eat to be very boring. Generally they seem to eat sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and supper with dinner/middag being the only time they eat anything else. At least that's what they seem to do around here.
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| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5257 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 43 of 338 23 August 2012 at 9:47am | IP Logged |
Brun Ugle wrote:
It's true that the main meal is around 5:00 or after work. Since it is called middag, I
assume it was probably around lunchtime back when everyone was a farmer, but now that people work in
offices and factories, it's more convenient to have it after work. When I worked on farms though, it was
often around 3:00 or 3:30. I've never heard about this cake and coffee for supper thing. It's usually
sandwiches in my experience.
Actually, I find what Norwegians eat to be very boring. Generally they seem to eat sandwiches for
breakfast, lunch and supper with dinner/middag being the only time they eat anything else. At least that's
what they seem to do around here.
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I agree, though it is not uncommon to have coffee and cake around 7 either. When I was a kid we would
have dinner (middag) at 14.30 sharp, because my father was a teacher and both he and my sister and I
were home from work and school at that time. We would only have coffe and cake if there was some sort of
celebration, otherwise we would have open sandwiches around 6-7, and that was it.
Now we have dinner at any time between 4 and 8 depending on when we get home from work and how
elaborate the dinner is. On week ends it might even be as late as 9. What does not change though, is the
fact that there is only one hot meal a day, regardless of when it is served.
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| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4562 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian
| Message 44 of 338 23 August 2012 at 10:31am | IP Logged |
When I was young, in my family we would have dinner at 5. My parents would then have coffee with something sweet (e.g. cake or "vafler") around 7 - normally to coincide with the evening news on TV. Then we often had "kveldsmat" (supper) at 9 or 10, but that would simply consist of a couple of slices of bread with "pålegg", i.e. some cheese or ham or salami to put on top. We would often accompany the meals with milk. All in all, it was pretty boring.
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jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6832 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map
| Message 45 of 338 23 August 2012 at 1:41pm | IP Logged |
Brun Ugle wrote:
Actually, I find what Norwegians eat to be very boring. Generally they seem to eat sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and supper with dinner/middag being the only time they eat anything else. At least that's what they seem to do around here. |
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When my brother was working in UK he had (British) colleagues who used to have a small bag of potato crisps (!) for lunch. I don't find that particularly exciting either. :)
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5376 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 46 of 338 23 August 2012 at 5:00pm | IP Logged |
Ogrim wrote:
When I was young, in my family we would have dinner at 5. My parents would then have coffee
with something sweet (e.g. cake or "vafler") around 7 - normally to coincide with the evening news on TV. Then we
often had "kveldsmat" (supper) at 9 or 10, but that would simply consist of a couple of slices of bread with "pålegg",
i.e. some cheese or ham or salami to put on top. We would often accompany the meals with milk. All in all, it was
pretty boring. |
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We had almost the same routine, although we would normally have dinner around 4, and the coffee and sweets
("ettermiddagskaffe") would normally be between 6 and 7, before the evening news started at 7.30.
Edited by tractor on 23 August 2012 at 5:06pm
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5376 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 47 of 338 23 August 2012 at 5:05pm | IP Logged |
Brun Ugle wrote:
It's true that the main meal is around 5:00 or after work. Since it is called middag, I assume it
was probably around lunchtime back when everyone was a farmer, but now that people work in offices and
factories, it's more convenient to have it after work. |
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Your assumptions are right.
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| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4751 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) ![](/images/pokal.2.jpg) Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh
| Message 48 of 338 23 August 2012 at 5:26pm | IP Logged |
I'm guessing that the word "middag" has undergone a similar process as that by the word
"dinner" in England.
Dinner is essentially the main meal of the day, whenever it occurs.
In days gone by, especially for working-class people, and school-children, "dinner" was
around the middle of the day (say between 12 and 2pm). Middle class and above had
"dinner" in the evening, and "lunch" in the middle of the day.
Nowadays, things have changed, fewer people are obviously "working class" and "dinner"
in the evening is more universal, and the midday meal is more universally "lunch"
except in school, where I think the word "dinner" is still in common use.
(But the tradition of at least 2 and often 3 hot meals a day is strong here, although
they don't all have to be big meals, e.g. could be as simple as a boiled egg)
On my (so far) only trip to Oslo, we stayed at the Rikshospital(et) residence (meant
for visiting relatives but it is also open to anyone who wants to stay there), and
included in the cost was a fantastic hot cafeteria-served breakfast, which would have
happily satisfied English fans of the traditional British "cooked breakfast", but also
with a range of (allegedly :) ) healthy food as well :-) It's an absolutely brilliant
place to say actually, and right next to a tram stop. They also served hot meals in the
evening and maybe at lunch (you'd obviously have to pay extra for those), probably
aimed at the staff. I guess this means that people working odd hours could find time
for at least one hot meal a day, not that they were eating 3 hot meals a day.
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