Smorgasbord is an anglification of the Swedish word Smörgåsbord. It is a buffet style table in a restaurant, or a holiday feast at home, prepared with many small dishes. For a fixed amount of money, you are allowed to eat as many of these as you wish. In an extended sense, the word is used to refer to any situation which invites you to select whatever you wish among several pleasant things, such as the smorgasbord of university courses, books in a bookstore etc. It may also be used to indicate any diverse group, synonymous to hodgepodge .
A traditional Swedish smörgåsbord consists of both hot and cold dishes. It is customary to begin with the cold fish dishes (generally various forms of herring, salmon, eel etc), continue with the other cold dishes, and round off with the hot dishes (of course including meatballs, and other Swedish specialties like Janssons frestelse ). There may or may not be desserts.
Christmas Smorgasbord
Julbord ("Yule table") is the name of the traditional smörgåsbord served at Christmas in Sweden. Like an ordinary smorgasbord it contains many different dishes, but with a focus on those typical of the season. The main dish is a large baked ham, which is eaten with mustard and/or bread.
Etymology
The Swedish word "smörgåsbord" comes from smörgås = sandwich and bord = table. "Smörgås" (sandwich) in turn comes from smör = (literally smear, ointment) butter and gås = (literally goose) pieces of butter formed on top of cream when churning butter.
Jul is the word for Christmas in Swedish. It has the same root as yule in the English language, and is pronounced nearly the same "jeul".
See also
