May 17

May 17 is the Norwegian Consitution-day (national day). The most important celebration of the day is the children’s parade. Here is a picture from our capital, Oslo, where the parade goes up to the castle, seen in the background of the picture. All the schools in Oslo join together in one enormous parade:

[IMG]http://pub.tv2.no/multimedia/na/archive/00364/barnetog__17_mai_364073c.jpg[/IMG]

But on my island there were no kids, so we grownups had to make a parade of our own, single file to make it longer, but also because the path was so narrow. It may interest you to know that instead of the regular marching band, we had a flute-player from Vermont leading the procession:

[IMG]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2402/2502385009_e1580a1c80.jpg[/IMG]

After he procession, with a “champagne-break” half way, we went for cakes and coffee in one of the ladies’ house, and I made a speech honoring the day and our “Founding Fathers”.