Celebrating Norway. (Photo by Sean Hayford O’Leary at Flickr)
Hurra for Norge! (Hooray for Norway!) On this special 17. mai small, handheld norske flagg (Norwegian flags) are being waved with more stolthet (pride) and glede (happiness) than ever. It’s 200 years since Norway left Denmark and got its own lover (laws). Let’s take a look back:
For 400 years, Danish kings ruled Norway. Danmark-Norge was one single country. Kongen (the king), however, was usually busy enjoying life in the Danish city of Copenhagen. Many Norwegians felt neglected. There is a reason dansketida (the Danish period) is also called firehundreårsnatta (the 400-years-long night)!
Things began to change in 1813, when the French conquer-it-all emperor Napoleon lost an important battle against Britain and Sweden. You see, Napoleon had a friend, the Danish-Norwegian king Frederik den sjette (the sixth – he was the little subdued boy with the insane father in the Oscar-nominated Danish movie ”A Royal Affair”). Napoleon’s enemies now forced Frederik to let go of Norway. The Norwegians didn’t get complete uavhengighet (independence), though. In 1814, Norway entered a union with Sweden.
The men discussing the constitution in Eidsvoll.
In early 1814, a number of Norwegian politicians feared that Norwegians would become Swedish. For that reason, 112 men from all over the country were chosen to write an independently Norwegian constitution. In April 1814, these men gathered in
Eidsvoll (a classy house to the north of Oslo). On May 17th the Norwegian constitution was ready to go public.
Because of grunnloven (the constitution), the Swedish king Karl Johan had to accept Norway as a separate nation. Norway joined Sweden in a union, which lasted until 1905.
Den norske grunnloven was inspired by the constitutions of France and the US. It stated that Kongeriget Norge er et frit, uafhængigt og udeleligt Rige = Kongeriket Norge er et fritt, uavhengig og udelelig rike (The Kingdom of Norway is a free, independent and indivisible country).
If you ever go to Norway on this day, you’ll see lots of people smiling, eating is og pølser (ice-cream and sausages), wearing bunad (the Norwegian national costume), waving flags and singing joyful hymns while marching in 17-maitog (May 17th-parades). Everyone is happy and nobody is left out. You absolutely don’t have to be Norwegian to participate! 🙂
Everybody, from the smallest barn (child) to innvandrere (immigrants) to samer (the Sami people) to kongefamilien (the Royal Family) is out in the streets celebrating their beautiful country of fjell og fjorder (mountains and fjords). And now you know why they’re so happy!
