Norwegian Constitution Day
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The Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as syttende mai (meaning May Seventeenth), or Grunnlovsdagen (Constitution Day), although the latter is less frequent.
| Observed by: | Norwegians | |
| Also called: | Syttende mai (May 17) | |
| Begins: | May 17 | |
| Occasion | Celebrating the signing of the Norwegian Constitution in Eidsvoll, May 17 1814. | |
| Symbols: | Parades, flags | |
Historical background
The Constitution of Norway was signed at Eidsvoll on May 17 in the year 1814. The constitution declared Norway to be an independent nation.
By historical coincidence 131 years later, the Second World War ended in Norway just nine days before that year's Constitution Day, on May 8 1945, when the occupying German forces surrendered. Even if The Liberation Day is an official flag day in Norway, the day is not an official holiday and is not broadly celebrated. Instead a new and broader meaning has been added to the celebration of Norwegian independence on May 17.
Children's parades
All over Norway, children's parades with an abundance of flags form the central elements of the celebration. Each elementary school arranges its own parade[#endnote_parade], led by the school's own marching band. The parade takes the children through the community, often making stops at homes of senior citizens, war memorials, etc. The longest parade is in Oslo, where some 100,000 people travel to the city centre to participate in the main festivities. This is broadcast on TV every year, with comments on costumes, banners etc, together with local reports from celebrations around the country. The massive Oslo parade includes some 100 schools, marching bands, and passes the royal palace where the royal family greet the people from the main balcony.
Typically a school’s children parade will consist of some senior school children carrying the schools official banner, followed by a handful of other older children carrying full size Norwegian flags, and the school’s marching band. After the band the rest of the school children follow with hand sized flags, often with the junior forms first, and often behind self made banners for each form or even individual class. Nearby kindergartens may also have been invited to join in. As the parade passes, bystanders often join in behind the official parade, and follow the parade back to the school. During the parade a marching band will play and the children will sing the Norwegian national anthem, along with other marches with lyrics about the celebration of the National Day.
In addition to flags, people typically wear red, white and blue ribbons. Although a long-standing tradition, it has lately become more popular for men, women, and children to wear traditional outfits, called bunad. The children also make a lot of noise shouting "hoorah!", singing, blowing whistles and shaking rattles.
In addition to children's parades, there are parades for the public, where every citizen is welcome to join in. These are led by marching bands and often local boy scouts and girl guides, local choirs, etc. This takes place in the early morning or in the afternoon, before or after the school's parade.
All parades begin or end with speeches. Both grown-ups and older children are invited to speak. After the parades, there are games for the children, and often a lot of icecream, pop, sweets and pølse (hotdogs) are consumed.
Russ
The graduating class from the Norwegian equivalent of high school - known as russ - has its own celebration on May 17, staying up all night and making the rounds through the community. The russ also have their own parades, in which they parody various local and political aspects, although recently this has become less frequent.
Celebration across the country
- In Oslo, children from all the city's schools gather to parade past the Royal Palace, where they and the Royal Family exchange waves and greetings.
- In the municipality of Asker, outside Oslo, the children gather outside the residence of the throne heir at Skaugum Estate in the morning (giving the Prince and his family time to attend the parade in Oslo later in the day).
- Bergen has its own traditions for the parade, including comic troupes, various local organizations, a children's parade, and the buekorps.
Celebration abroad
The National Day is also celebrated in many Norwegian immigrant communities throughout the world, with traditional foods, including lutefisk.
Henrik Wergeland
The poet Henrik Wergeland is credited with making Syttende mai a celebratory day for the children rather than a day of patriotic pride. Flags and music dominate the day, and there are few military parades. To commemorate his contribution, the russ in Oslo place an oversized hat on his statue near the Norwegian parliament; the Jewish community place a wreath on his grave in the morning as a tribute to his efforts on their behalf.
Military parades
The only military parade is performed by the Royal Guard on the main street of the capital city, Oslo. During the parade, the Guard display their drill and music skills, rather than showing off military force. An example of an exercise performed by the Guard includes throwing their rifles over their shoulders, with bayonets attached, to another Guardsman who walks behind and catches it. The most impressive aspect about the Guard's parade is that they have learned their skills during the course of nine months, and during that time they also go through normal infantry training.
The marching band of the Royal Guard also attend the children's parade in central Oslo together with the schools' own marching bands.
An inclusive holiday
The former Norwegian president of parliament Jo Benkow noted that the day has increasingly become a celebration of Norway's growing ethnic diversity.
Several factors have probably contributed to the inclusive nature of the celebration:
- The central position of the children’s parade, including all lower level school children, and therefore also their parents in the celebration.
- The celebration is focused around local schools and their children’s parade.
- The children’s parade reaches outwards, trying to cover as many roads as possible in the local community.
- The low focus on elected government during the celebration. In the capital, for example, the children’s parade passes the left side of the parliament building, and the president of parliament is allowed to wave to the passing parade from a small balcony[#endnote_balcony], but the main focus of the parade is the Royal Castle and the Royal Family. In must also be noted that the office of president of parliament is mainly ceremonial and administrative, often awarded in the later part of a political career. The prime minister and the rest of the ruling government on the other hand have no official duties during the celebrations.
- The virtual lack of any military-centred celebration.
See also
- Constitution Day – A list of similar holidays in other countries
- Riksforsamlingen
- Constitution of Norway
Notes
- ↑ The Norwegian language has two distinct words for the English term “parade”: “Parade” which refers to a military like parade, and “tog” which refers to people walking in a predefined route just like a train moving along its track. The later word is used for a children’s parade and is taken from the Norwegian word for “train”. In Bergen, the parade is known as a "prosesjon" (procession).
- ↑ A funny side-note showing the low focus of elected government is the balcony the president of parliament is using: In the earlier days this was a small, temporary balcony added to one of the windows of the parliament building just before the National Day and removed afterwards. Prior to the parade he must have carefully climbed out of the window and onto the balcony, while during the parade itself his mind must have switched between remembering to wave to the children parading and worrying if the balcony would fall down. Today the parliament building has a quite small, but permanent balcony that looks less likely to collapse.
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