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Sunday 17 May 2009

Norwegian National Day


Today is the Norwegian Consititution Day, the National Day (Masjonaldgen) of Norway. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as Syttende mai (meaning May Seventeenth). We Norwegian Forest Cats, Miss Kitty, Siena, Fin and I, would like to take the opportunity to salute our Motherland and welcome Theodor, a NF mancat-in-training, to our community. He lives in Stavager, a lovely city by the North Sea in Norway. He blogs both in Norwegian and English. Please drop by to say 'mieow'.



A noteworthy aspect of the Norwegian Constitution Day is its very non-military nature. All over Norway, children's parades form the central element of the celebration. Each elementary school district arranges its own parade with marching bands between schools. The parade takes the children through the community, often making stops at homes of senior citizens, war memorials, etc. The biggest parade is in Oslo, where over 100,000 people would travel to the city centre to participate in the festivities.

The poet Henrik Wergeland is credited with making Syttende mai a celebratory day for the children rather than a day of patriotic pride examplified by military parades, on the basis that children are the country’s future and prosperity should not be determined by military might.

Although the Constitution of Norway was signed at Eidsvoll on May 17 in the year 1814, the celebration of the day was not encouraged by the monarchy until much later since it was thought that the celebration was a kind of protest against the Swedish sovereignty. After 1864, the day became more established, and the first children's parade was launched in Christiania, in a parade consisting only of boys. This initiative was taken by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, although Wergeland organized the first known children's parade at Eidsvoll around 1820. It was only in 1899 that girls were allowed to join in the parade for the first time.


We NFCs of the catblogosphere make no discrimination. We encourage all to join in the celebration.

Cheers to Norway!!!

Cheers to the NFCs!!!!!


Top left - Miss Kitty, top right - Siena, bottom left - Fin, bottom right - moi!

23 comments:

Quill and Greyson said...

what a great post SIF. I have a little NFC Vogue post you might like. Love you SIF and SS.

Jans Funny Farm said...

Hooray for you gorgeous Norwegian Forest cats.

Cory said...

I'm floofy but only medium floofy...I'm a NFC wanna be!!!! You are all magnificent.

Gemini and Ichiro said...

Norwegian Forest Cats have a day? Oh wait--Norway has a day. I think Norwegian Forest Cats should have a day. And Siamese too. Just for us!

Have a good one!

Leslie said...

Happy Norwegian Cats Day! Purrs from the topcatrules girls.

Kate (Pablo's mum) said...

Wow, Momo! You're a wealth of info about Norway and the special holiday today. I love the philosophy behind the celebrations. Sounds like it will be a fun day in Norway today, especially if they do well in Eurovision! Purrs to all the lovely NFCs.

Alastriona, The Cats and Dogs said...

I think Norwegian Forest cats, are lovely and MoMo is the loveliest of them all. ~ Socks

Does Theodor need a girlfriend? We thinks he is cute ~Scylla & Charybdis

Hi MoMo ~ Fenris

Alastriona, The Cats and Dogs said...

We visited Theodor's blog and tried to tell him hi TWICE, but our comment never showed up. So he will either get two comments from us saying hi or zero. When we tried a thrid time it said duplicate comment detected so maybe it is there somewhere. ~S,S,C & F

ZOOLATRY said...

How wonderful; we love learning about other places in this great and wonderful world. You NFC's have an amazing history...

The Island Cats said...

Happy Norwegian Constitution Day...and Norwegian Forest Cat Day! We saw you vogueing over at Fin's!

Unknown said...

We iz celly-bratin' wif youz taday! Youz is some reely kewel kittiez!

The Cat Realm said...

Happy Constitution Day!!! And thank you for all the information. We think it is sooooo cool that you NFC have formed a 'blogging group' so to speak. We will have a few Lizquilas and some nip on Norway and NFCs now! (Any excuse, hahahahahahahahaha)
The Cat Realm

Cat with a Garden said...

It was a very good idea to celebrate this day, Momo! Purrs to you, to us and to Norway our homeland! Cheers!
Siena

Fat Eric said...

My humans went to Norway last year and saw lots of pictures of the May 17th parades. Plus Norway won the Eurovision Song Contest (it was a runaway victory!) last night, so an especially good day for them!

Asta said...

Momo sissie
Happy Syttende Mai Day to you and youw bootiful fwiends.!
I'm glad they finally inclooded giwls, hehehe
It sounds like a vewy lovely celebwation. I love that it isn't militawy!
YEAH!!!!!
smoochie kisses
ASTA

Sassy Kat said...

Happy Constitution day, looks like a lot of fun celebrations all around. I think this would be a perfect things for the gang to do next year.
Your sweet little friend, Theodor looks like such a cutie, I will head over to his place and get to know him better.
Hope you are having a fun happy day!!

Cliff and Olivia said...

We love the picture. Silly-cute!

Anonymous said...

Happy Norwegian Consititution Day, Momo!! How great all Norwegian Forest Cats celebrate this day!

And there is more to celebrate for you... Norway won the Eurovision Song Contest yesterday!
So double cheers to Norway!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi there Momo! Thank you so much for posting Theodor´s picture! He is so proud for being on your blog!!!
You sure know a lot about Søttende Mai! It´s so nice of you to teach everybody a little Norwegian History!

It was a lovely National Day in Norway yesterday. Parades in all cities and villages, good food, good drinks, friends and family gathering, and flags everywhere. And Norway won the Eurovision Song Contest May 16th, so the celebrations were running high, I can assure you!

Anonymous said...

And thanks everybody, for the sweet words about my cutiepie Theodor!

Ingvild, Theodor´s human.

PDX pride said...

Gratulerer med dagen! Hip, hip, hurra, hurra, hurra! Our mommy walked in a parade and danced with her leikarringen children today in a celebration at the local Sons of Norway lodge!

Forever Foster said...

Theodor is gorgeous! It must be fun for you ladies to have a mancat-in-training in your midst now:) We hope you had a happy day.

Cat with a Garden said...

BSIF, tell SS to check this if she would like to squee a bit. All based on our knowledge of her owl love...
Purrs, LSIF