Experiencing Norway's National Day

Mostly written on the 17th of May, Syttende Mai, Norway's Constitution Day, in Oslo.

We are in Oslo at a fortunate moment, without having planned it. When we arrived yesterday evening (three hours late on the train from Arvika, but that is another story) we didn't know that today was going to be Norway's Constitution Day. We found out about it before going to bed, having happened to see a notice in the window of the (closed) tourist information office at the station. I noted that it would involve a procession of children through the city to the Royal Palace where the King would wave at them from his balcony, but I never imagined the scale of this parade.

It involves something like 100,000 people, most of whom arrive in red busses, carefully organised and lined up to pick them up in groups again when they need to leave. The organisation is impressive!

I'd been apprehensive about the day because, being small, I find crowds claustrophobic or intimidating sometimes, especially when they're rowdy, and I have a painful back just now from too much physical exertion in Karlstad, Sweden, so thought the standing and watching might get overwhelming, but I needn't have worried. As soon as we came downstairs to the door of our hotel this morning, we saw the people and the bands of children arriving, making their way to the muster point for the start of the celebration. Chris and I perched on bar stools nicely positioned by the coffee shop window where we had our breakfast to watch. Two ladies wearing their provincial costumes came in, looking proud and happy to be in Oslo, and allowed me to take a photo of them, there and then.

We followed the costumed people for a few blocks, since they were all heading in the same direction, and found a vantage point for what appeared to be the start of the parade. It may have been only one wing of the parade, for we later saw that streams of people, mostly children, were merging and converging on the roads that led to the Royal Palace. This was where the King and his family would come out and wave to them. What heartened me most about seeing these thousands of people go by was how diverse they were. Admittedly the majority were blond and blue-eyed, many of the girls wearing plaits in their hair, but there were many newcomers to Sweden among them, obviously, the whole spectrum of skin colours and racial types, handicapped children too, everyone cheerful, everyone feeling extremely patriotic today. It gave an impression similar to the impression we get on Canada Day, although the difference here was that most participants in the celebrations were very smartly dressed, the men and boys wearing jackets and ties. Some men wore hats too. Nearly every woman in Oslo wore her long national dress, adorned with a silver belt or necklace, carrying an embroidered purse. Some had matching jackets or capes.

Another remarkable thing about the children was the number of competent musicians among them: flute, clarinet, bugle, drum players all keeping time and playing in tune, even the little ones. Weeks of practice must have gone into this.

What impressed us as much as the disciplined children was the organisation of the parade. There seemed to be no muddle in the placement of these tens of thousands. Busses were mustered to pick them up at a certain time, in a certain order, at the bottom of the hill by the harbour. Sections of the town had been fenced off to accommodate the busses and the patiently waiting children. I saw no fractious behaviour, although it must have been such a long morning for them. I don't know what the children got to eat; we didn't see them eating. Extraneous people (us, for instance) were kept well away from the school parties.

Chris and I were lucky to find the last seats available at the fish market restaurant that day and had a meal of freshly caught haddock, with chips. (The following day we saw the boats bringing in and selling the fish.) Some National Day gatherings were taking place on board boats in the harbour. After lunch we walked a little further: into the Royal Palace part of the city where we found that we could go into the palace park, a pleasant place to recover from the excitement and watch families greet one another and play on the grass.