The 17th of May Explained

Tomorrow is perhaps the most important day on the Norwegian Day. The 17th of May is the Norwegian National Day/Children’s Day/Constitution Day (it goes by a couple of days). I’m writing this post before the day so that you know a little about what it is and what it involves before you read the blog post about my experience of the day that is sort of inevitable. 

I’ll start with the basics. On the 17th of May, 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was signed. The Constitution made Norway an independent country, except for the fact that they were still under Swedish rule. The Swedish authorities had seen the celebration of the 17th of May as almost a small protest against their reign so for years the celebration was banned. However this all changed when King Carl Johan died in 1844. His son had seen the gradual change of the intentions of the celebration- it wasn’t about showing military prowess or protesting, it was a day of celebrating the children of Norway. People were allowed to celebrate the day again and the focus on the children has remained to this day. People have celebrated with big parades every year excluding during World War II when Norway was under Nazi occupation.

Probably the biggest part of the celebrations are the marches or barnetoget. In nearly every town there will be a procession, all of the children march with their schools whilst waving Norwegian flags. The parades also feature marching bands and skolekorps as well as russ students. Russ is a bit like Norwegian schoolies, except it’s a lot more complicated. You see it’s not just people in the last years of high school that do russ, it involves nearly a month of partying and marching on the 17th of May signifies the end of it. Afterwards they have their exams. Russ are very distinctive as for the entire month they wear the same jumpsuit or pair of overalls, usually blue or red. 

Another very important part of the 17th of May is the food: Cake, sausages, ice cream and more cake. It all sounds pretty good, right?

I’m seriously excited for tomorrow. I get to march and participate in a Norwegian holiday that is something like no other. The weather is looking good for marching, it’s meant to be be back around 10 degrees which is a lot nicer to march in than 29 degrees (trust me).

I’m afraid this may have been slightly boring but I wanted to share a bit about the day before because I know that I’m not going to want to write facts about it afterwards.

Until next time,

Alicia

Note: photos are not mine