Today all of Norway celebrates freedom

Patriotism is still alive in Europe.

17th May celebrations in Norway. If you look closely, you will see the college graduates called “russ” doing a prank and laying in the middle of the parade. Photo by Peter Imanuelsen

Happy 17th May constitution day to all my Norwegian followers. Or Gratulerer Med Dagen as they say in Norway (translated as congratulations with the day).

Here is something that many people outside of Norway probably don’t know about, as patriotic celebrations like this is usually ignored by most of the media.

Millions of Norwegians have taken to the streets today to celebrate freedom and democracy. People dress up in traditional clothes called ”bunad” and march in massive parades all across the country.

From the smallest villages, to the largest cities, people turn out and march in parades waving the national flag. It is a beautiful sight.

I currently live in Norway and I was awoken at 7am this morning by several rounds of cannon fire as a salute to start the day. Surely all of the village were awakened by this, I almost flew out of my bed…

PeterSweden @PeterSweden7

Patriotism is still alive in Norway🇳🇴 Millions of people took to the streets today to celebrate freedom and democracy on constitution day. Many are wearing traditional clothes and they all march in massive parades!

So what is this day?

It is the Norwegian constitution day, celebrating how the constitution was written on the 17th of May in 1814. This was the beginning of Norway as an independent state after being part of the Danish-Norwegian Kindgom for hundreds of years.

It was the birth of independence for Norway.

However, independence would be short lived, because Sweden would later in the summer of 1814 go to war with Norway which forced Norway to enter a ceasefire with Sweden. Norway would keep its constitution, but Norway would be in a union with Sweden until 1905.

This is a massive day for Norway, probably even bigger than 4th of July for the USA. As I said, millions turn out every year in a patriotic display.

Most Norwegians wear traditional clothes called bunad during these celebrations. They are beautiful and very expensive, with the women wearing real silver decorations on their dresses. Traditionalism wins over modernism...

The dresses even have different designs depending on the region someone is from as you can see on this photo below.

Norwegians wearing traditional female bunad. Photo by Peter Imanuelsen.

The men also have special dresses and most of them wear special decorative knives as part of the outfit.

Norwegian man wearing traditional male bunad. Photo by Peter Imanuelsen.

All restrictions were removed in Norway several months ago and today millions were out on the streets celebrating freedom on constitution day. No social distancing rules and nobody was wearing face masks.

Back in 2018, I made a video on my YouTube channel documenting the celebrations and you can watch it here!

So lets join Norway in celebrating independence, freedom, democracy and patriotism on this special day!