Quite a lot of friends and girlfriends have problems with this cold winter, I had a long phone conversation
this evening with a girlfriend who just came back from a ten day trip to Egypt.
Every year she goes to a warm country or Island in the winter, the Canary Islands, Turkey,
Portugal. Many older Duch go to the Meditaranian in the Winter, many others live in Spain or
have a second home there. How is it in America and Canada, do you have people with winter depressions
or somberness there too. There is a theory that in the Northern countries, due to shortage of light there
are more depressive people and more suicides. In Scandinavian countries the suicide figure is high.
Edvard Munch's "Cry" symbolises this well.
Pieter
Pieter,
I agree with you very much. But this scandinavian depression is also somehow related with the character of these people - more introvert. Or - maybe this is a vice-versa.
People in warmer countries tend to live together, sometimes on the streets. In the North contries we isolate ourselves at homes.
Jaga,
I think that in general Nordic people are more closed or introvert, because they always have to struggle with the weather and the cold, and with other people for their survival. But from the other side I think that in basic all people are the same, in what they do, love, dislike and etc.
We Northerners tend to romanticise everything form the South and sometimes dislike our own boring culture and country, while this vibrant,
dynamic, oriental, sensual, swinging, living Southerners seem to really live.
I exaggerate how some Duch, Germans and Brits look at their lives and adore the Latin culture. Girlfriends of mine in Arnhem and Amsterdam, and female colleages at work love everything from Southern America, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Some of them even learned Italian and Spanish.
They go to Tango and Salsa lessons every week, and have Cuban, Venesuelian, and Mexican music at home and some of them have Southern American friends. Argentinian and Venesuelan.
I wonder if the Poles are Northern European people or that they are more
influenced by the latin culture (via the strong Italian and Habsburg influences on Polish history and culture, and the presence of tiny Southern minorities in Poland such as Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Gypsies).
The Reformation broke the Protestant North off the South, and made the Lutheranian and Calvinist Northerners more selfcentered.
The Protestantism in my view has a lot to do with how the Scandinavians,
Northern-Germans, Northern-Netherlands and Prebysterian Scotland are
(Not focussed on the Vatican, not linked to the South, Italy or the Spanish or Austrian habsburg rulers). Where we always stryggled with our sea's and rivers and neighbours, the Scandinavians had to deal with their rivalry and harsh climate. It is not an area where you get warm and happy easily.
But I like Scandianvian people very much, since they all speak exellent English, are close to the Duch culture (they even have Duch, English and German words, but I can't understand their languages), their magnificant landscapes and fjords. Next to the English speaking people the Scandinavians are for me the easiest people to get into contact, because of the shared North-Western European culture.
I think you can compare Scandinavia with New-England, Alaska, the other
Northern American (USA) states and Canada.
Duch are very oriented on abroad, because we don't like our autumn and winter, which is often cold, somber and wet.
But you have also crazy Duch people who go abroad and take their culture
with them. Go to Duch campings, Duch snack bars, Restaurants and Pubs in Spain. Probably the same with the British, German and Scandinavian tourists. The South-African husbant of my sister worked in a Scandinavian bar for one year in Portugal.
Jaga, although I think that Duch people are friendly to foreigners I think that they look introvert to foreigners to.
I witness I have more contact with people when I am abroad than when I travel through Holland.