Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday observed on May 17 each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as Syttende Mai (meaning Seventeenth of May).

Norway

Nasjonaldagen (The National Day) or Grunnlovsdagen (The Constitution Day), although the latter is less frequent.

The Norwegian royal family greets the children’s parade (yes the Seventeenth of May are about the children) in Oslo from the Royal Palace balcony. This was instituted as tradition of King Haakon in 1906. Today is Seventeenth of May and the parade almost synonymous, but this has not always been.

The very first celebration of May 17th to have taken place in Trondheim in 1815, one year after the Constitution was drafted and adopted by the National Assembly at Eidsvold. In 1836, the Parliament celebrated Seventeenth of May for the first time, and it’s estimated this as the institution of the National Day, writes the Norwegian Royal Family on their webpages.

It was King Haakon and Queen Maud who introduced the custom of greeting the children’s parade from the Palace balcony in 1906. The custom has been upheld ever since. The only exceptions were in 1910, when the Royal Family was in England for the funeral of Queen Maud’s father, King Edward VII, and during World War II from 1940 to1944.

Each year the Royal Family gathers to greet the children’s parade from the Palace balcony. Her Royal Highness Princess Ingrid Alexandra is the fifth generation to honour this tradition.

Seventeenth of May are very uniq – since other countries often are showing of their military power on their national day so are Seventeenth of May the opposite of that – since the day are for the children.

Seventeenth of May are celebrated not only in Norway – but Norwegian all around the world celebrates this day – from Scandinavia to UK and Ireland to Australia to USA to mentions few places.

In Seattle, USA – the Scandinavia LGBT community celebrates the Seventeenth of May.

In May 1889 before Washington became a state in November and before the Great Seattle Fire in June, the first recorded Seventeenth of May celebrations in Seattle were held writes the 17thofmay.org.

Happy Birthday Norway ! or as Norwegians would have said it : Gratulere med Dagen !

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