Celebrating Syttende Mai at St. Olaf College
May 17th, 2005,Today is Syttende Mai (Seventeenth of May), Norway’s Constitution Day. We were fortunate enough to celebrate the day at a “Syttende mai frokost” (breakfast) at St. Olaf College, an institution founded by Norwegian Americans. The food on hand included herring, salmon, goat cheese, and Norwegian waffles with lingonberry jam and sour cream.
As our family went to sit down, St. Olaf College president Chris Thomforde motioned for us to join him at his table. In my few meetings with him I’ve always found him to be an especially friendly person. He entertained us with some stories of his basketball-playing years, including his unsuccessful tryout with the New York Knicks. He eventually went on to graduate school at Yale and became a Lutheran minister.
The breakfast was sponsored by the St. Olaf Norwegian Department and the Norwegian House. It featured a short program of Hardanger fiddle music, a type of Norwegian folk music. The fiddle players wore traditional Norwegian costume and played on ornately decorated fiddles.
A handout at the program included some information about the holiday:
“The 17th of May celebrates the signing of the Norwegian constitution on May 17, 1814, at the end of the 400-year union with Denmark. Shortly afterward, Norway was forced into a union with Sweden that lasted from 1814 to 1905, when Norway finally won its independence.
“This year, Norway is observing the Centennial Anniversary of the peaceful dissolution of its union with Sweden, and there are many special events planned in Norway as well as in many other countries, including the United States. This summer, St. Olaf is planning to send its largest contingent ever to Norway for the Centennial Anniversary. In June, 260 musicians, 20 faculty and staff, and nearly 100 travelers in three different Study Travel programs will represent the college as they enjoy Norway’s festivities, scenery, and people.”
As part of the program, we sang the Norwegian anthem, “Ja, Vi Elsker,” and a patriotic tune called “Norge i rodt, hvitt og blatt” (”Norway in red, white and blue”). The latter celebrates the national colors, which the population was forbidden to wear during the Nazi occupation of Norway in the Second World War. Here are the lyrics in English:
Norway in Red, White and Blue
Wherever you go in the meadow and mountain,
a winter day, a summer evening
by the fjord and waterfall,
from the meadows and pine barrens,
from the ocean’s edge with fishing villages
and to the white reefs,
you meet the land in a tricolor dress,
cradled in the reflection of the colors of the flag.
See the white-stemmed birch on the hillside,
framing the patch of bluebells
against the red-painted cabin by the road;
it’s the flag that waves in the wind.
Yes, the snow is as white as the white of the flag,
and the evening sun has taken on the red color,
and to the glaciers the blue lends its color,
it is Norway in red, white and blue.