Sunday - day 10 - Akureyri, Iceland - part 3 - Akureyri Museum

Parts 1 and 2 from Akureyri can be found here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/sunday-day-10-akureyri-iceland-part-1.html and here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/sunday-day-10-akureyri-iceland-part-2.html

We walked from the Botanical Gardens on our way to the Akureyri Museum.

As we walked, we saw these creatively covered trash cans!

And another one...

... this one tried to bite off Carl's arm -- Joe barely saved him from certain dismemberment!

I found this information from Google:

The trash monsters in Akureyri are ten playful, waste-eating outdoor sculptures created by local artist Jonna (Jónborg Sigurðardóttir) to encourage proper litter disposal with humor. First appearing around town, these figures are refreshed each spring to stand guard during the summer. 

Key Details: 

Total count: 10 different sculptures 

Creator: Local artist Jonna Jónborg Sigurðardóttir 

Purpose: Encourage people to put trash in its place 

Season: Placed outdoors for the summer season after spring touch-ups

Just to give you an appreciation of what these trash cans look like in other places...

...this one really looks the worse for wear -- the trash monsters are quite an improvement!

 We were heading for Akureyri Museum...

There was a church on the museum grounds...

Information about the church (it kinda seems like the English description might be less complete than the Icelandic description?)

Inside the church -- the blue and cream are peaceful colors.

From Google Lens: The painting is a traditional Icelandic altarpiece, showing a scene of the Last Supper, a common theme for Icelandic altar pieces.

Inside the museum...

A re-creation of a turf house

I was reading the description below about Ash Wednesday... got about halfway through the first paragraph...

"...the ritual of beating a cat out of a barrel..." What?!?!? 

Google provided some additional information:

The ritual of "beating the cat out of the barrel" (slå katten af tønden) is an old Scandinavian tradition practiced during Öskudagur (Ash Wednesday) in Iceland.

Today, the event is a harmless, festive holiday for children, very similar to hitting a piñata. A wooden candy-filled barrel, usually decorated with pictures of black cats, is hung up.  Children dress up in costumes and take turns hitting the barrel with a wooden bat. The child who knocks the bottom out to release the candy is crowned the Cat Queen. The child who breaks the very last wooden plank off the rope is crowned the Cat King.

The Dark History -- While it is lighthearted today, the historical ritual was literal and grim. In the Middle Ages and up into the 1800s, black cats were associated with evil spirits, witchcraft, and the plague. A live black cat was locked inside a wooden barrel. Adults or children would beat the barrel with clubs until it splintered apart. The goal was to "beat the evil out" before Lent. Historically, the terrified cat would leap out and flee, which superstitious townspeople viewed as chasing evil away from the village.

The tradition originated with Dutch immigrants in Denmark during the 1500s. Because Iceland was under Danish rule for centuries, the custom spread to Iceland, finding a strong foothold in the northern town of Akureyri around 1915 before becoming a nationwide Ash Wednesday staple.

There was this interesting photograph of children dressed up for Ash Wednesday.

Iceland's Independence Day was June 17, 1944.

Information about their celebrations and the path to independence. It is interesting that they voted for independence from Denmark when Denmark was under occupation by the Third Reich.

On another floor of the museum, there was a display about the UK and American occupation of Iceland during WWII. There was a display about Quonset huts (including a re-creation of one) that reminded me of Dwayne's and my search for a specific Quonset hut near Port au Choix in Newfoundland back in August, 2016 (https://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/08/getting-repairs-made-thursday-18august.html).

When we left the museum, we found a photo opportunity with cutout faces on those two children in their Ash Wednesday attire. Pat and I tried them out!

This was right outside Nonnahús (Nonni's house).

"Nonni's House is a museum in the Akureyri municipality in Iceland. The small wooden house, built around 1850, is one of the oldest houses in Akureyri. It was the home of the well known children's author and Jesuit priest Jón Sveinsson; also known as "Nonni"."

There was a room with many, many books that Nonni had written.

In another room were books about Nonni.

It was a tiny house, but interesting to view.

The museum admission allowed us to visit other museums in Akureyri, but we only visited one more (the Toy Museum) as we were getting tired!