This Week's NATIONAL ETIQUETTE AWARD goes to... Norway!

Norway - Wikipedia

Norway - World Factbook

Norway.com

Tidy little houses nestled among the trees greet you as you approach land. Small islands provide homes for the locals, whose boats you see neatly lined up on shore in a cove. At the end of the fjord you disembark in Oslo, the capital city of Norway. It is a city of history, neatly decorated with beautiful flowers and numerous statues.

As a recent visitor remarked, "Art, flowers, cleanliness are all an important part of Scandinavia." The city was clean, and the people were not slovenly. The buildings were not shabby. The Scandinavian appreciation for aesthetic neatness and cleanliness extends to their homes. It is customary in Norway to remove your shoes when entering a home.

Unfortunately they do not attend to their souls as well as they attend to their appearance and property. While 85% of Norwegians officially belong to the state church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway, and more belong to other Christian denominations, only 3% of the nation's population attend church on Sundays. Despite low church attendance, Norway is one of the world's top sending nations, with 1,060 missionaries serving in 82 countries in 2001. In return, 16 countries sent a small total of 59 missionaries to Norway.

The people of Norway have twice voted against joining the European Union, which makes Norway the only Scandinavian country that is not part of the EU, although they cooperate closely with it.