History of Cats - The Cat in the Barrel

3. Fastelavn - Norway's Easter Festivities

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Fastelavn is a carnival that takes place in Norway 7 weeks before Easter. It is similar to Halloween in that children get dressed in costumes and collect sweets from neighbours. Lots of party games are played, and one of the most popular ones involves black cats.

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A barrel decorated with black cats is hung up and filled with candy and oranges. Children take turns to hit the barrel with sticks, very much like piñata. The first to break the bottom of the barrel and cause the candy to fall out is named Kattedronning - Queen of Cats. The one who knocks the actual barrel down is called Kattekonge - King of Cats.

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Of course, as is often the case, this game is based on more serious traditions. Black cats have always been a symbol of bad luck or evil, and in the 15th and 16th centuries a real cat would be placed inside the barrrel. The Dutch Farmers would then beat the barrel with sticks and clubs until the cat fell out, and it would then be chased by all the villagers and, if caught, beaten and often killed. This was superstitiously thought to safeguard them from evil and chase the bad luck from the village.

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It wasn't until the end of the 19th Century that the cat was replaced by a drawing and it became more of a children's game than a serious event.

Other traditions include Fastelavnsris which involves children flogging their parents to wake them on the morning of Fastelavns Sunday. They use bunches of twigs from fruit trees decorated with feathers, egg shells, storks and little figures of babies or wound with crepe paper and covered with candy. This probably comes from an old fertility ritual and has been absorbed into Christianity to fit with the Easter celebrations.