SwedenGate in Norwegian Media

How has Norwegian media covered SwedenGate?

BECAUSE MY native Norway is so close culturally to Sweden we have naturally followed the “SwedenGate” story. Even the biggest newspapers such as VG have covered the story. As they say in VG: It could have been called NorwayGate as we have almost exactly the same culture around guests, dining and eating.

SwedenGate is about how foreigners had experienced as children that they would not get invited to dinner when visiting their Swedish friends and the ensuing shock and outrage the followed around the world. “Storm in a water cup,” as we would say here in Norway. While not exactly the most important issue in the world it easily engage lots of people because it is something we can all relate from our own life. Quite different from the life of a soldier on the frontlines in Ukraine for instance. Most of us have not served in any armed forces, let alone been in a war, but we have been children and we have eaten dinner before 😉

I wrote my own experiences as a Norwegian in: Sweden Gate — Why We Don’t Feed Guests in Scandinavia.

But this time I want to cover more of what has actually been said in Norwegian media because they have done surveys and dug a bit deeper into the history and traditions for how you treat guests, in particular visiting children.