Hipp Hipp Hurra! It’s Norway’s birthday!

After Christmas, I would say that Norway’s most celebrated holiday is their national day, normally just known as “the 17th of May.” This holiday celebrates both the creation of their constitution in 1814 (on May 17 exactly) and the ending of World War II in Norway (May 8, 1945, which has been judged to be close enough to May 17).

Norway’s population is polite and kind but they’re also quietly pretty darn convinced that their country’s got it right (especially, you know, right now), so there is no shortage of patriotism and pride in the flag to go around. Last sabbatical we explored a lot of this holiday, but didn’t understand the extent to which this is a day for children. The fact it coincides with Russferie meant there was a certain amount of attention-hogging adolescent behavior going on, something that the city set out to fix.

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The barnehage has been preparing the children for a couple weeks for May 17. Here’s a couple slides from the most recent weekly update, which goes up to Friday, May 16.

After all the preparations was a parade for the parents to come and watch.

There was also apparently some attempt to acknowledge the backgrounds of some of the immigrated kids, as evidenced by this artifact found on the barnehage window.

All of this took us up to the day before May 17. Annalise was very excited for “Norway’s bursdag” (Norway’s birthday), and decorated the house appropriately.

May 17 starts remarkably early for Norwegian families. All year, we’ve beaten the vast majority of Norwegians out of the house on weekends by a couple hours. This year, everyone had to be up, fed, dressed, and at the schools at 9:00 for the beginning of the festivities. May 17 is one of the few events that Trondheim celebrates with nice clothes. Most Norwegian women, and some Norwegian men, are wearing their traditional wool outfits, which cost several thousand dollars and are typically handed down from grandparent to grandchild. Others just wear suits or nice dresses. Children get (significantly) cheaper dresses that don’t have all the quality or detail of the real thing, but nonetheless fit the mood.

The schools celebrate with songs, marching bands, and speeches, before marching off in organized rows to join the city-wide barnetog (literally, “children’s train,” but it means a parade – Annalise had interpreted it literally and was disappointed to learn there was not an actual train). Annalise and her friends made sure to get in some quality time on the school playground before setting off.

I had been strictly instructed by my Norwegian colleagues that on 17 May, parents may not limit a child’s ice cream or hot dog intake. In the end, Annalise only had one hot dog, two ice creams, and a sucker, so we didn’t do too bad.

After nap, we went back to the school for the afternoon. Annalise found some friends and had an active afternoon.

Gratulerer med dagen, Norge! Thanks for letting us celebrate with you!