LIKE Australia, Norway is currently in the grip of Easter. Church services abound, chocolate eggs are plentiful and families are heading away to the country.

But there’s something else happening in Norway, something dark and disturbing which is perhaps the oddest of Easter traditions.

At this time of year, the peace-loving Norwegians like nothing better than heading to their mountain cabins and revelling in death and blood — the gorier the better.

The holiday wouldn’t be complete without indulging in a healthy dose of Påskekrim — literally ‘Easter crime’.

“A Påskekrim novel is a vital part of any Easter trip to the mountains, along with a Kvikk Lunsj [a chocolate bar a bit like a Kit-Kat], and an orange,” writes author Camilla Swift in Britain’s Spectator.

“So synonymous have these become, that in 2009 one Norwegian publisher printed a crime anthology with a cover so similar to the chocolate bar’s wrapper that they were taken to court.”

And if they don’t have a book to read, never fear, Norwegian TV will deliver crime thrillers and horror films in abundance.

Even Norwegians in Australia indulge in this distinctly not very cheery Easter pastime.

Originally from Oslo, Arild Bekkelund has lived in Adelaide for 10 years.

“Every Easter I catch up on the pile of books on my bedside table that, as a small-business owner, I never seem to have time to read during the hectic and busy year,” Mr Bekkelund tells news.com.au

“I especially like my Scandinavian crime authors — Jo Nesbø, Camilla Läckberg, and Jussi Adler-Olsen, just to mention a few.”

Quite why Norwegians love crime at Easter is something of a mystery but there’s several theories.

Discovering a new Nordic noir just in time for Easter. #påskekrim 🐣 pic.twitter.com/C4j2122Dm9 — elisabeth edvardsen (@elisabethLDN) April 13, 2017

One is the sheer length of Norway’s Easter holidays, said to be the most extended in the world.

By Maundy Thursday, Norwegians are all out of the office not to return until Tuesday at the earliest. But a string of other public holidays mean many take off several weeks.

It’s what to do with this indulgence of time that is thought to have led to the abundance of crime.

In 1923, authors Nordahl Grieg and Nils Lie found something to fill the lazy days.

The duo wrote a crime novel about a fictional and brazen robbery that took place on the night train to Norway’s second city of Bergen during the Easter break.

It being the Easter break, the thieves were able to escape undetected skiing down through the mountains with their loot.

Somewhat unimaginatively titled The Bergen Train Looted in the Night (Bergenstoget plyndret I natt) the book had a revolutionary advertising campaign for the 1920s.

In the run up to Easter, the book’s title was printed on the front page of Norway’s — then as now — leading newspaper Aftenposten. It was designed todeliberately mimic a real headline.

An extract from the book masqueraded as the article.

In the same ways that the 1938 US radio broadcast of HG Wells’ classic The War of The Worlds was so realistic people were convinced aliens had indeed invaded earth, so Norwegians were absolutely certain a heinous crime has taken place.

Kari Dickson, UK based literary translator who specialises in Scandinavian fiction, told the London Review of Books that the 1923 crime caper enthralled Norway.

“Once people got over the initial panic and realised it was an advertisement, they then rushed out to buy the book, spent Easter reading it, and the book became an instant bestseller.”

The next Easter, eager Norwegians were flooded with new crime novels — very little has changed in almost a century.

“Until recently, most if not all crime novels were launched just before Easter, and while that is not entirely the case anymore, there is a spike in sales of crime fiction around Easter.” wrote Ms Dickson.

“Special anthologies are published, and crime mysteries even appear on milk cartons.”

Indeed, Tine, Norway’s biggest milk brand features not images of cows, Easter chicks or even, you know, Jesus on its cartons this time of year, but comic strips of crime stories.

Nowadays Norway, and Scandinavia as a whole, is known for, ‘Nordic Noir’ — dark and brooding stories of crime and death that take place under the leaden skies of Europe’s far north.

Swedish authors such as Stieg Larsson, author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Danish series The Bridge are consumed across the globe.

Jo Nesbø is one of Norway’s most successful crime novelists. The economist, reporter and musician has seen his novels — centred on Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo police — translated into 40 languages and selling 23 million copies.

Anne Holt used to work for the Oslo police force and since leaving has written a string of successful detective novels many featuring lesbian officer Hanne Wilhelmsen.

So. if your break is dragging, and you can’t stand all the repeats on TV, why not go all Norwegian and escape under a warm blanket with a Kit Kat and a dark and gritty tale of crime and murder.

benedict.brook@news.com.au