Hip Hip Hoorah!

The sun was shining brightly for all the Independence Day festivities today. I felt terrible for all the women in their heavy wool bunads (the dresses weigh more than 15 pounds), and the men in their wool pants and vests, jackets and knee high wool socks. It was in the 70s today and I was sure some might pass out from heat stroke in the streets as they walked along in the parade or stood on the sidelines watching it go by.

We were up early this morning as I had to cut Kaleb’s hair, much to his dismay, and the squirming and complaining he did showed up in the kind of job I did. As I was standing outside cutting his hair it was as if a national alarm clock went off at the stroke of eight when all the neighbors we could see from our house were out within minutes of each other hanging up their flags. By law, the flags can only fly today from 8am to 9pm and I’m sure everyone was sitting inside counting down the minutes until they could display their national pride. It is quite a sight when every house is flying a flag.

We ventured into the city this morning to see the big parade in downtown Aalesund. The best part is just getting to the street where the parade is and watching all the people funnel into the city wearing their bunads (traditional national costumes), both men and women, and children – it’s all very festive and so attractive. All the people from this area of Norway use the same pattern so it’s somewhat like a uniform in that they are all dressed alike (it’s easy to see who is NOT from their area as their bunads are so different). People line the street waving flags just to watch the parade of people waving flags who are dressed just the same, walk down the middle of the street. It’s never clear who is in the parade and who is a spectator, but mostly the parade is full of children. They begin the "tog" with all the daycare centers and move up in age as the parade passes by. Many of the children are dressed in bunads, or their best clothes as it's a very formal day. Parents accompany some of the younger kids, but as they age, the children go it alone. It’s just a parade of people, all dressed up yelling “Hip Hip Hoorah!” and waving their Norwegian flags. There are no motorized vehicles, no floats, no advertisements, no special interest groups, no politicians and no throwing of candy. (Kaleb was pretty devastated the first parade we went to here in Norway when he realized they didn’t throw candy.) Occasionally there will be a marching band or some singing group going by, but for the most part, it’s just people, happy as can be that their land is free from Swedish rule, congratulating each other on the day and yelling “Hip Hip Hoo-rah!”

We cut out a few minutes early from the parade so we wouldn’t be stuck in the traffic jam to get back home. Kaleb had to be at his school by 1:30 and he needed to each lunch. Filadelfia Church had their café open today, but there was no church service. All the churches cancelled their services today because of the holiday. Often on holidays, churches open up their cafes and serve meals so that no one has to be alone on those days, or for those who don’t want to cook, they can meet their family or friends at church and share a meal together there. We stopped off to greet Tante Ruth and to congratulate her on the day and see if she wanted to join us, but she didn’t. We dined with plenty of people we knew. then afterwards we dropped Kaleb at school and headed home. The parade route went right by our house so we knew we wouldn’t miss it. Kaleb was a little peeved that he was told he HAD to be in the parade. He would have preferred making the choice himself, but since he was told by his teacher he HAD to be in the parade, he was resentful. He just couldn’t figure out how his teacher could tell him what he MUST do on a Sunday. If this day would have been Monday, he would have had no problem with it, but he really didn’t like so much intrusion on his private life. Too funny. Turid joined us as we watched our neighborhood parade come down from the school to our house, turn the corner and head up to the nearby sports center. The kids all took turns carrying the class banner and Kaleb was able to have his turn right in front of our house, along with his friend Toben and Morten (see photo of Kaleb and his bad haircut, wearing sunglasses and the bunad I bought at a flea market - Morten is holding the banner.) At the sports center there were hours of activities for the kids, and hot dogs and cake and coffee and lots of candy as prizes. There must have been a thousand people there – it was like a huge neighborhood party. We ran into several people we knew so we visited to the bitter end. Then an hour later we headed up to the local State Church for a special party for the neighborhood, complete with contests for the kids, hot dogs and cakes and coffee. We saw more people we knew from the neighborhood and several came over to Kory and thanked him for the bus stop painting. We did see some families today gathered around the bus stop for a back drop as they took group photos all dressed up in their bunads in front of it, so Kory was pleased he was able to contribute to the festivities of the day. Hip Hip Hoorah!