Happy Syttende Mai! That’s “17th of May” in Norwegian. This morning my wife and I attended the annual Syttende Mai Frokost (breakfast) at St. Olaf College. Syttende Mai is a Norwegian holiday celebrating the signing of that country’s constitution in 1814, which made it independent of Denmark. A forced union with Sweden, however, meant that Norway did not achieve full independence until 1905.

A number of people at the breakfast wore pins with long red, white, and blue ribbons. I asked Prof. Margaret Hayford O’Leary, chair of the college’s Norwegian Department, about them. She said that many Norwegians wear them on this day.

I had some good food as well: herring, mackerel in tomato sauce, goat cheese, and Norwegian waffles smothered with jam and sour cream.

To top it all off, I greatly enjoyed this morning’s beautiful weather on the walk to and from the breakfast. The flowers are blooming on this sunny and mild spring day.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 17th, 2006 at 10:57 am and is filed under Minnesota, Norwegian America.