Today is the thirteenth and final day of the Christmas festival in Iceland and what better way to celebrate than with more bonfires and fireworks? Read the full story

The majority of members on Iceland’s working group on the protection of sea birds have controversially decided that complete protection of five species is the only way to strengthen their numbers. Read the full story

Not wanting to be seen as Scrooges, the Norwegian capital Oslo has decided against scrapping its annual Christmas tree gifts to Rotterdam, Reykjavik and London, despite the the cost to the Norwegian taxpayer. Read the full story

Traditional Danish surnames such as Jensen, Nielsen and Hansen could be dying out, as more people change their aliases in a bid to stand out from the crowd. Since new laws were introduced in 2006 making it easier for people to pick their own monikers, over 320,000 Danes have opted to be called by something more exotic than the name they were born with. Read the full story

Last week the European Human Rights Court (ECHR) ruled that Italy was to remove all crucifixes from state school classroom walls. Read the full story

It was a surprise for all parties involved when a nude saxophone player beat out four similarly clad violinists to be voted the best representation of a water fairy from Swedish folklore. The Arets Nack (Water Fairy of the Year) has been a popular event in north-western Sweden for more than a decade. But for the first time in the 15 years of its history, a contestant played something other than a violin. Read the full story

Today is Finland’s national “Sleepyhead Day,” a perfectly normal and not-at-all-weird custom celebrated in the country since the Middle Ages. The basic gist is as follows: wake up early or get dumped in the sea. Simple really. Read the full story

In what seems to have become a devious tradition in the northern Swedish town of Gavle, the town’s giant Christmas goat made from straw has been burned to the ground. The famous Christmas goat stands 13 metres high, but it has been burned to a crisp 23 times since the tradition began in 1966. Read the full story

In a new survey just released, 68 percent of Swedes want to see the Swedish government bail out its beleaguered carmaker Volvo. Although Volvo is owned by US carmaker Ford, Swedes would like its government to temporarily take control of the nation’s iconic firm, as many residents fear Volvo may disappear entirely from Sweden in the near future. Read the full story

Finland’s indigenous people, the Sami, are expressing a growing concern that their traditional way of life may soon disappear, reports IPS.

According to Martin Scheinin, who is a professor of international law at the Abo Academy in Turku, the constitutional rights of the Sami are being ignored by sections of the state administration.

“They keep treating the Samis as a linguistic minority,” Prof. Scheinin said.

As the Sami are accorded a status in the Finnish Constitution as indigenous people, they have the right to elect their own parliament.

“The difficulty facing us is that we are facing comprehensive and complete assimilation all the time,” said Pekka Aikio, former president of the Sami Parliament.

There are approximately 8,000 Sami in Finland and a total of 100,000 Sami in Sweden, Norway, Finland and other parts of Northern Europe.

The Sami traditionally gain their livelihood through the herding of reindeer but more and more Sami are turning away from this practice and living like other Finns.

According to Prof. Scheinin, problems over land use is one of the main threats to the Sami way of life, with the government itself often responsible for deforestation of areas used for pasture by the Sami who have no land rights of their own.

“Nobody knows how the government got this land or from whom they bought it. They simply took it,” said Prof. Scheinin.