Hipp Hipp Hurra!
May 17, 2008
Today (the 17th of May) is a very special day for me. I’m from Norway, and the 17th of May is our National Day! It’s a celebration of the signing of our constitution in 1814, which declared us an independent nation (Norway had been under control by Denmark and Sweden up until then).
Today the day is traditionally celebrated all over the country by children parades. This day is all about the kids. We get to wave flags, dress up in our national costumes (the bunad) and best of all, it’s tradition to eat as many hotdogs and ice creams as our tummies will let us (I don’t really know why, but it’s a good tradition that I hope will never die ^^V).
In short, the 17th of May is a good day to be Norwegian. This year the weather wasn’t quite with us, so my celebrations were cut a bit short, but I did get to wave hello to the royal family and I did eat the obligatory hotdog. Unfortunately no ice cream, this was in fact the coldest 17th of May in over 50 years!
I’ll round up this post with a video. I talk a bit about my bunad and you get to walk up Karl Johan, the main street in Oslo, towards the royal castle~ the Norwegian royal family also make a brief appearance!
(If video skips, pause and let it load completely before watching)
With love, Second generation O!P member – Twissie
Entry Filed under: culture, video. Tags: 17th of May, celebration, Norway, Norwegian, O!P, twissie.
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1.
Rei-chan | May 17, 2008 at 9:49 pm
*_*!!!! I LOVED this post Twissie!! It’s soooo interesting to learn from other cultures, but in this case the video made it possible for us readers to feel like we were actually there taking part in the celebration. That felt really great! Your traditional dress is so CUTE!! Thank you so much for sharing this special day with us!!! Can’t wait to see more Twissie videos *_*
2.
twissie | May 17, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Aah, thank you for the wonderful comment Rei-chan! ^^; I love learning about different cultures too, so I’m really happy I was able to contribute with a post like this! A real shame about the weather, though. I wanted Oslo to shine~~
I’m looking forward to doing more videos for the O!P wordpress, I just hope I’ll be a bit more comfortable in front of the camera by then ^^; Heee.
3.
swedenland | May 17, 2008 at 10:00 pm
That was awesome Twissie!! Makes me want to be Norwegian haha! I think this looks way more fun than the 4th of July for us. And you better get some ice cream before you go to bed tonight! >:O
4.
Twissie | May 17, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Hee, thank you Maki! I’ve always thought that Norway has the best national day celebrations, but maybe that’s the patriot in me shining through? (but we do have pretty awesome celebrations, yes)
It’s 3 minutes past midnight here now, but shush. We bought ice cream and will eat it now while watching a movie ^^; We have to! There is no 17th of May without ice cream :O