Påskekrim (Easter Crime)

Norway’s obsession with True Crime at Easter

Påskekrim

Now here’s a tradition I can stand behind! Apparently everyone in Norway goes over to the dark side the week leading up to Easter and reads massive amounts of crime and true crime, as well as watching every possible crime show. And by tradition I mean it’s:

– Been around for almost 100 years
– Has its own hash tag--#påskekrim
– Has its own crime writing festival–Krimfestivalen

Marketing that REALLY paid off

It all started with a couple of authors who published a crime novel in February 1923. In the week leading up to Easter, when the entire country goes on vacation, their publisher had the absolutely brilliant idea of putting the ad for the book on the front page of a newspaper, making it look like a real news story. Once the dust settled, Norwegians bought the novel in droves and, somehow realized that reading dark crimey stuff while holed up in their mountain vacation cabins, surrounded by ice and snow, was the BEST THING EVER. Like EVER. Like they still think it’s the best.

I agree! What better way to spend a cold, snowy week when there’s nothing else to do (because the entire country is on vacation and everything is closed) than by burrowing under duvets and reading about bad people behaving badly?

And it’s global

The Norwegians are equal opportunity readers. They love their own, of course, but crime writing from all over the world is consumed during this week, as are TV shows and even true crime whodunnit games.

You can read more about it here.