Þorrablót: Iceland's midwinter feast, explained
In the darkest stretch of winter, Icelanders gather around trays of food that startles most visitors: fermented shark, sour-cured ram's testicles, singed sheep's head jelly and smoked lamb. This is þorrablót - the midwinter feast named after Þorri, a month of the Old Icelandic calendar, celebrated from Husband's Day in late January until Women's Day a month later.
When is þorrablót season?
Þorri is the fourth winter month of the old calendar and always begins on a Friday between 19 and 25 January - that Friday is Bóndadagur, Husband's Day. The month runs thirty nights until Góa takes over on Women's Day. Throughout those weeks, workplaces, sports clubs, village halls and community associations each hold their own blót, so the season is dotted with feasts rather than fixed to one date.
An old word, a young tradition
The word þorrablót appears in medieval sources, but the feasts as Icelanders know them are a 19th-century revival, dreamed up by romantic nationalists. The word þorramatur- “Þorri food” - is younger still: it caught on after the Reykjavík restaurant Naustið began serving traditional preserved foods in wooden troughs in 1958, turning farm-larder survival food into a festive menu.
What's in the trough?
- Sour-cured delicacies- ram's testicles, liver sausage, blood pudding and sheep's head jelly, preserved in fermented whey as Icelanders did for centuries before refrigeration.
- Fermented shark (hákarl) - infamous for its ammonia punch, eaten in small cubes and chased with a shot of brennivín.
- The gentler side - smoked lamb, dried fish with butter, dense rye bread, flatbread and mashed swede. Nobody goes hungry, even the squeamish.
The food is only the ticket in. A proper blót runs on group singing, comic speeches roasting the locals, and dancing late into the night.
Want the dates? See when Husband's Day and Women's Day fall this year, or browse the whole winter in the calendar. The old calendar behind it all is explained in The Old Icelandic calendar.