SACHF News December 2017
60 W. Olsen Road,  Thousand Oaks, CA 91360        805-241-0391   
MERRY CHRISTMAS! to you...& Happy New Year too!
To start December, the CLU Choir performed in a series of Christmas concerts for special CLU audiences and for the public. Several members of the choir are also associated with our various Scandinavian activities.
With the CLU Sankta Lucia event
only a few days ahead in the morning of Dec. 7 at 11:15 in Samuelson Chapel,  Fred Tonsing provides some history of the Christian celebration. During the Nov. 29 Brown-Bag Lunch at the Scan Center, he told about the evolution of the Lucia story...and he told about the evolution of the ceremony at CLU from a raucous gathering in the past to the recent reverent atmosphere. And  CLU student  Anna Liljas (in the doorway) made a surprise visit. Not only is she a member of the SACHF board and president of the CLU Scandinavian Student Club, she was chosen to be the 2017 CLU Lucia.
Sankta Lucia added holiday cheer...
as CLU student (and on our SACHF Board), Anna Liljas , is shown as 2017 Sankta Lucia...and at right with CLU President Chris Kimball . Another of our board, Britta Grampp (front left in the group) was also honored as part of the Sankta Lucia Festival.
A place for everything -- and everything in its place!
As a former office manager, Rose Topliss came to the rescue of the assortment of publications in the ScanCenter. Now when you come to the Center, you easily find your favorite publication from the neatly organized array of publications related to the various Scandinavian countries. Note that the Viking magazine is front and center-- and is that because Rose is  member of the Sons of Norway?
Speaking of Norwegian-- or of Norwegian writing...
maybe you could take lessons from this "teacher" from the "Little Vikings" that meet weekly at the ScanCenter. Here Camilla Peltonen offers some guidance in the special Norse words. And if you want to learn more, you could sign up for the adult Norwegian language class that meets one night a week at the ScanCenter. Or if it's a Swedish language class you want, you can enroll in that also at the ScanCenter. Check ScandinavianCenter.org.
To get a "bargain" on food, fun and learning next year...
set your sights on the traditional Scandinavian Festival scheduled for April 21-22 of 2018, to be offered by SACHF at CLU's Kingsmen Park. Look at all these activities above...and then consider the bargain cost: $10 for adults, $5 for teenagers, and free for  those younger. And parking is FREE. For more information, log on ScandinavianFestival.org. And watch for much more about this fun-fest in the coming months.
Nordic response by SACHF President Anita Hillesland Londgren...
As I visualize one of our coming events-- the Nordic Spirit Symposium , promising further reviews of the American settlement by Leif Erikson and his community circa 1000-- I think back to an earlier Symposium focus on the Vikings.
 
Of course, I particularly remember the dramatic presentations by Marit  Synnøve Vea  (assisted in this photo with her husband Terje Andreassen ), because I learned that she is one of my Norwegian relatives.
 
That Symposium link with her led to further Viking "explorations" in Norway when my husband and I later visited my ancestral home on the island of Karmøy. There, Marit served as Director of the Avaldsnes Project, so she treated us with a personal tour of the museum on the site of the 9th Century residence of King Harald Fairhair.
 
At the same time, we got a progress report about the project to build the largest existing Viking ship to sail to America, Guess what!  He was in the thick of building that ship.
 
Now, in further connection with Vikings, mark your calendar for Feb. 9 and 10 of next year, when the Symposium will feature another chapter in the research about the Norse in the New Land. To check it out, log on to https://scandinaviancenter.org/nordic-spirit-symposium/ . Later, we'll provide you more information as the event approaches.

P.S. Once again, we'll sign out with this reminder of the mission of SACHF: Preserve and promote Scandinavian Heritage and Culture in Southwestern United States for the education and enjoyment of present and future generations.
Scandinavian American Cultural and Historical Foundation