Arts Council Norway has set up a knowledge bank to highlight the diversity of living traditions and traditional knowledge to be found in Norway. By submitting your contribution to the Knowledge Bank, you are helping to highlight the diversity of Norway's intangible cultural heritage and increase awareness of this aspect of cultural heritage.

The Cultural and Culinary Traditions of Dried Cod/Stockfish

The culture around coastal fishing and outdoor dried cod form the basis for the intangible traditions in this article. The…

Food traditions
Knowledge of nature and the universe
Oral traditions and expressions
Social customs, rituals and festivities
Traditional crafts

Summer dairy farming at seter and støl

Many small farms in Norway have access to an abundance of outlying grazing land. For hundreds, if not thousands, of…

Food traditions
Knowledge of nature and the universe
Oral traditions and expressions
Traditional crafts

Seven women wearing the Hardanger bunad. Source: The National Library of Norway’s collection of images.

Hardanger headdress-pleating

A few years ago, no one but Ingebjørg Byrkjeland knew how to pleat the headdress traditionally worn with folk costumes…

Social customs, rituals and festivities
Traditional crafts

detail of embroidery, Bolsøybunad

Traditional costume-maker

When we see people proudly wearing Norwegian traditional costumes (bunads), it is easy to fall in love with the overall…

Traditional crafts

Traditional costumes in Norway, craftsmanship and social practice

Few countries in the world can boast such a widespread and common use of traditional costumes as Norway. Traditional costumes…

Social customs, rituals and festivities
Traditional crafts

Boat pulling at Bjørkedalen

Boat pulling is the the process of bringing a finished clinker-built wooden boat out of the boat shed at Bjørkedalen…

Social customs, rituals and festivities
Traditional crafts

Traditional use of clinker-built boats

For at least two thousand years, open clinker-built boats have been rowed and sailed in Norway. In days gone by,…

Knowledge of nature and the universe
Oral traditions and expressions
Social customs, rituals and festivities
Traditional crafts

Traditional clinker boat building

The Norwegian clinker-built boat has a history stretching back at least two thousand years. Throughout history, it has been a…

Knowledge of nature and the universe
Traditional crafts

Story Walks in the Natural World

The revival of live oral storytelling often goes hand in hand with ethical values of sustainability. Respect for nature as…

Knowledge of nature and the universe
Oral traditions and expressions
Practical art

Hvert år arrangeres festivalen Paaskiviikko

Paaskiviikko er en kvensk festival som arrangeres hvert år i juni måned.

Dual-language multi-ethnic Storytelling

Myths, fairy-tales, legends and jokes are still being told and retold today. Norway has its own treasured stories in Norwegian…

Oral traditions and expressions
Practical art

Å spille på langeleik læres ved å se, høre og gjøre

Unge tradisjonsutøvere lærer seg kunsten å spille, her fra Jørn Hilme-stemnet i 2016.

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