17. Mai!

Our second weekend here was a great experience as it included that most Norwegian of festivals, the 17th of May. 17th of May is Norway's national celebration day on which the constitution was established in the 1800s. They didn't actually gain independence until several decades later, but they were on the path. On this day Norwegian's get all dressed up in their traditional Norwegian garb, known as bunader. The main event of the day is the parade in which every school parades in front of the dignitaries of their town. Being that we're in Oslo, the kids here get to parade in front of the highest of dignitaries, the royal family. Yes, Norway still has royalty. When they gained independence they chose to stay a monarchy and they invited one of the princes of Denmark to move to Norway to be their king. He of course did not pass up the offer to be king, but out of consideration for Norwegian tradition he took on the name of one of the Norwegian Kings of old, Haakon. This happened in 1905. Since then there have been only two more kings, the current one being Harald, shown on the balcony above with his family. Harald is actually the first Norwegian King to be born on Norwegian soil since the 1300s. They are just figureheads mostly, but are celebrities and the tabloids here cover the doings of all the royalty of Europe.

But enough about royalty, 17th of May is really considered the childrens' day. It is a day on which they are allowed to eat as much ice cream and junk food as they want. The kids we were staying with didn't take advantage of this with as much gusto as american kids would as they don't have the sugar capacity we do because they eat so healthy all the time. But anyway, it is a really great celebration of nationality and of the nation's future. There are currently debates about the role of the celebration as Norway has more and more immigrants, but the spirit of the childrens' day is something that I don't think will be changing anytime soon. Below is a picture of children dressed up in their national costumes, and if they don't have one they are in their Sunday best.



After the parade is over the partying begins. We went to the grandparents' house for a wonderful meal with grilled salmon, pate, chicken, and this amazing thing called blodtkake. It is a cake made with very fine layers of sponge cake and filled with whip cream and jam. Very rich, but awesome. We then went to a park and hung out with some of the Baha'i youth and had a picnic with them. We also managed to visit the new opera house, which is absolutely gorgeous. It is built right on the ocean and is meant to look like an iceberg. You can see it below.

As you can see the architecture is very interesting. The inside is also really beautiful. You can walk up the roof and see the whole city from up there. The city is currently working on constructing another tunnel (they're very common and very impressive here) to actually make the freeway that runs between the train station and the opera house go underground so the entire waterfront can be a pedestrian zone. There are only 8 parking spots at the opera house, so it's location next to the central station is ideal. Currently the only way to get to the opera is via a pedestrian bridge over the freeway from the train station. These big projects are a little controversial, as is the fact that the government spent millions on the Italian marble used on the exterior of the opera house when Norway has so much nice stone of it's own.


One last thing about 17. Mai is the Russ. Russ is the word for high school students that are just about to graduate. These kids are 18 and on their 18th birthday have been given the right to drive a car, smoke, and drink, all at once. So what do they do with these freedoms and their impending graduation? They party of course! In the picture above you can see two kids wearing red pants with all sorts of spots on them. That is the mark of the Russ. They wear these overalls constantly from the 1st to the 17th of May without washing them. The color of the overalls denote which kind of high school they went to, be it regular, business, environmental, medical, or vocational. The spots on the overalls denote the name of the student, the school attended, and any other silly or lewd things that get put on them by the kids. The kids collect patches by staying up all night or consuming a specific amount of alcohol. They have mock business cards that they hand out to each other and to little kids like trading cards. They also have busses. Above you can see that there is a colorfully painted bus with two boys on top of it. The kids save up money to buy a bus for their group of friends and they basically live in it. They outfit it with huge speakers and there is a contest for the loudest stereo system, and they congregate in parks and parking lots at night to party. Sounds like a good way to graduate, no? I forgot to mention one thing though, they are supposed to be studying for their final exams during this period as exams are the last week and the following week after 17th of May. Somehow they pull it off.

One interesting thing that was really nice about this year's 17. Mai was that Norway got a little present the day or two before. Every year there is a thing called the Eurovision Melodi Grand Prix Song Contest in which all the countries in Europe submit a song and artist that gets performed on tv and then the citizens of Europe vote for the winner. They are not able to vote for their own country so it's a thing of European camaraderie. This year a Norwegian kid won the Grand Prix right before 17. Mai. He was maybe not the best performer in the contest but his song was really catchy and Europe fell in love with him and the song and he had an uncontested victory. This song, Fairytale (performed by Alexander Rybak), became an unofficial national song and was pumped through the streets by the Russ and stores all day on 17. Mai. The boys standing on the bus in the picture above are singing along and dancing to this song before they go and parade in front of the king. All in all, it was a really fun day of national unity in this unique country.