Jump to content
Game-Labs Forum

Norwegian Constitution Day - May 17th


Anolytic

Recommended Posts

Today, 17th of May («Syttende mai), is the Constitution Day of Norway. 
It marks the day in 1814 when we got our very own constitution, despite Swedish protestations. 
On 17th of May we celebrate that Sweden - reluctantly - let us have our own constitution, after the Brits took us away from Danmark as punishment for their support of the defeated Napoleon, and then proceeded to give us to Sweden. It took another approximately 91 years before we became fully independent, but somehow we don’t celebrate that quite as much.
17th of May is a National Holiday in Norway, and yet it is impossible to sleep in as right now a marching band is passing my house at the head of a procession of school kids and their parents.
 
Here is the national anthem of Norway:
We also sing a lot of other ridiculously nationalistic songs on this day. And there’s a tradition for eating sausages on constitution day.
 
For college graduate students, 17th of May is the culmination of an intense month of celebrating the completion of 13 years in school. You may have heard about the strange tradition called «Russefeiring». Ironically, most college exams usually happen after 17th of May, but you wouldn’t want to spoil the celebrations with possibly knowing that examinations didn’t go so well (perhaps because of all the drinking instead of studying). 
 
In connection with our constitution, Norway also got our current flag. The flag is basically a copy of the Danish flag with its white Scandinavian cross on a red background, but with a blue cross added in the middle to symbolise the Swedish blue and also probably inspired by the French Tricolor flag. It was a practical flag as well. In the early days the Norwegian state was so poor that they they took old Danish flags that they had laying around, cut them into four pieces, and sowed them back together with the blue cross in the middle. Even though this didn’t at all comply with the proportions that the official flag was supposed to have.
 
But now we have oil. So we can buy as many flags as we want.
 
Here’s the Norwegian Royal Guard conscripts:

Some years they do a neat trick where they throw their guns at each other with their backs turned. And some years you can read in the newspaper about some poor bugger conscript who got his hand skewered by a bayonet during an exercise. 

c9fc7df2-2369-4c8b-b256-184cf21d6e0a?fit
 
I’m the least patriotic or nationalistic person I know, but with all this historical roleplaying in Naval Action, even a tiny bit of national pride is creeping up on me right now. I’m doing everything I can to dispel it.
Have a good day. And Happy Birthday Norway.
Edited by Anolytic
  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Tomms123 said:

Also, let's not forget that our King insisted on you getting your own constitution :) (at least that is what they tell us in school)

A Swede should never trust the history books in school... Just saying.

 

---

Eg håper dokker får ein kjempefin dag! (I hope my attempt at Nynorsk is understandable, wouldn't want to cheat with Bokmål ;-)).

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hip Hip Hurrah! 

 

Håper alle dere nordmen har en god nasjonal dag! Kos dere med pølsene, is, og øl, spar noe til meg også! :P

 

Sorry for my shitty Norwegian :P Despite having lived there for most of my life im crap at it xD

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, jodgi said:

You type it out in like I would say it, Niels, it's neither nynorsk nor bokmål but rather dialect.

Heia Norge!

Nice! Where in Norway does your dialect come from? The last Norwegian book I read was Markens Grøde, and there's a bunch of dialectal words in there - such as "dokker" that is pretty exotic for a Dane.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, Niels Terkildsen said:

Nice! Where in Norway does your dialect come from? The last Norwegian book I read was Markens Grøde, and there's a bunch of dialectal words in there - such as "dokker" that is pretty exotic for a Dane.

I come from the south west. The dialectal words in Markens Grøde are from north Norway, "dokker" just happens to be a fluke word appearing in both those quite different dialects. Did you enjoy the monumental national-romantic Markens Grøde? I absolutely hated it when forced to read it in gymnasiet, I was put off by the massive hard-on Hamsun had for his idealistic vision of "the original Norway". Re-read it later and quite enjoyed it, though. ;)

I highly recommend Jens Bjørneboe's "Haiene" (The Sharks). Naval themed romantizing anarchy. He was a kick-ass author who went to fight Franco in Spain. He also got in trouble with the Spanish police, "He touched me, noone touches me, so I hit him." ;)

Hey! What Danish author should I read? I'm particularly interested in those who formed their respective culture or provoked it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Haiene" sounds quite interesting. It's easy to find old Norwegian books in antiquarians, but Scandinavian inter-literacy is in decline, so it probably can't be found in any kind of bookstore in Denmark. Ordering online is the way. I suppose, we'll see, I have plenty of books I want to read - I acquired some of Sigrid Undset's lately ("Olav Audunssøn" and "Kristin Lavransdatter") so that's probably my next Norwegian read.

Being a bit of a silly, romantic idealist myself, I quite enjoyed "Markens Grøde" (but I also enjoyed "Pan" and "Sult"). If you like or kind of enjoy these early 20th century eccentrics, I'd recommend Johannes V. Jensen; either his most successful novel (said to be the best/most important Danish novel of the 20th century) "Kongens Fald" or if you're up for a challenge, his series called "Den Lange Rejse" (most importantly the chronologically second book "Bræen" that was written first).

I've found that the books you were forced to read in school, and at the time probably found terribly boring, later on in life may come to be seen in another light and be appreciated.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Niels Terkildsen said:

I'd recommend Johannes V. Jensen; either his most successful novel (said to be the best/most important Danish novel of the 20th century) "Kongens Fald" or if you're up for a challenge, his series called "Den Lange Rejse" (most importantly the chronologically second book "Bræen" that was written first).

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...