Novent is a portmanteau – when parts of multiple words are combined into one, creating a mash-up of their sound and meaning – in this case a mix of the words November and Advent.
Although shops in Sweden often start selling some Christmas food, sweets and decorations as early as October, traditionalists usually think of the Christmas season as formally starting in December.
This means that you have to soldier through a dark and dreary month of November before you can start putting up Christmas lights, eating lussekatter and julmust and treating yourself to all things festive.
But there’s a revolutionary movement – or perhaps more likely a marketing coup to lure consumers into joining the Christmas shopping spree early – that starts to celebrate the holiday season before December, in order to bring a little more Christmas cheer to November.
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The Noventers put up wreaths, light candles, treat themselves to a cheeky cup of hot mulled wine and talk about how mysigt everything is. Gingerbread snaps? Dig in, they say! It’s only Novent once a year.
Note that in Swedish it's written as novent as months aren't upper case in Swedish.
The word was picked in 2020 by the Swedish Language Council and language magazine Språktidningen as one of the new words that became part of daily conversation that year, but it’s only a few years later that it’s starting to really pick up pace – and it certainly beats some of the other November traditions we have in Sweden.
Example sentences:
Smygstarta julen med novent
Get Christmas off to an early start with Novent
Om jag firar novent? Nähä du! Inga lussekatter före första advent
If I observe Novent? Nope, no siree! No saffron buns before the First Sunday of Advent
Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.
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