Congratulations on the day!

A day from another world.

On May 17th, it is National Day and just in time, everything has turned green and started blooming. Norway's guardian angel also made sure that it would be a day without rain and with a bright blue sky and sunshine. Since the day was two days before our oral exam, we were forced to organize it well because we couldn't afford to have a completely free day due to our progress in learning. Normally, the city center has a full day program with many parades and processions, performances, and entertainment. Due to corona, this was significantly reduced. But they kindly published the program on a website. Traditionally, Norway starts the day with a champagne breakfast with friends and family. Pia and I started the day instead with the salutes at 7 a.m. at the old fire station in the Skansen neighborhood. It was one of the first places we visited during the quarantine and it offers a beautiful view over the city. Back then in winter, the former fire pond had been converted into an ice skating rink. This time there were 3 cannons standing there and welcomed the day with 21 shots. We covered our ears and it was still pretty loud. The ground also vibrated a lot. Afterward, we walked back down to the city and accompanied the first procession a little. They made a stop at every statue and laid down a wreath. Unfortunately, we understood less of the speeches. Afterward, we treated ourselves to a coffee and a Norwegian tradition called 'boller', a cinnamon bun, and sat down in the park at Lille Lungegårdsvannet. There, we watched the Norwegians in their beautiful traditional costumes as they were on their way to the city. The women wear bunads (singular bunad), which they often receive for their confirmation because they are very expensive. By color, pattern, and motif, you can tell which region they come from. We could only say which costume was worn by people from Bergen. However, there were so many beautiful variations that we discovered new ones throughout the day. But our conscience also drove us to take out our university stuff and study a bit in the sun. Since the high school final exams would be in a week in Norway, an older couple actually wished us good luck because they thought we were still in school. From my side, the study session was not very productive. There was simply too much to admire. Afterward, we were more drawn back to the city center because the main procession was supposed to take place at 10 o'clock. But somehow we couldn't find it. There were several small parades of different associations from Bergen instead. By the way, all of Bergen or probably all of Norway had decided that there was no corona on this day. There was practically no one wearing a mask and nobody knew about social distancing rules. The police didn't care either. By the way, the Norwegian mentality is completely turned around on this day. People greet and congratulate each other, and everywhere you hear people shouting 'Gratulerer med dagen,' which can be translated as 'Happy Birthday.' Everyone is celebrating, which is not difficult when you start the day with alcohol. But everyone is happy and smiling. The contrast to a normal day in everyday life could hardly be greater. And then it is actually a pity why they can't always be so friendly and open-minded. But maybe they need the alcohol in the morning for that. After we watched the small parades, we sat down on a bench in Nygårdspark, enjoyed the sun, and took out our notes again. When it was finally lunchtime, we took another brief look at the biggest square in the city center and took the Bybanen back to Fantoft to get something to eat and to have a more serious studying atmosphere. In Fantoft, I also found out that the program on the website only updates itself in the Norwegian language setting. And suddenly there was less happening and our torchlight parade, which we wanted to watch around 10 o'clock in the evening, was removed from the program. That's why we went back to the city for the fireworks at a quarter to twelve. It was still very bright, so the colors didn't shine as intensively as they do on New Year's Eve. But it was still beautiful. Later, we squeezed ourselves into an overcrowded Bybanen. You could see corona floating directly in front of your eyes. The day was super beautiful, interesting, and successful even with less program. But the real highlight was definitely the Norwegians themselves, who were not only well-dressed but also showed their emotions.

Now let's talk about the painted bus. At the beginning of May, the 'Russefeiring' starts and with it, the 'russetiden.' This is a three-week period in which the graduating classes of schools party, and it ends with the National Day on May 17th. The students wear red or blue overalls that they decorate themselves with stickers and inscriptions. Nowadays, money is saved from holiday jobs two or three years in advance so that later a bus can be bought, converted, painted, and turned into a mobile club. The bus is driven by a paid bus driver. Secretly, I would also like to be a bus driver just to experience how they party every evening for three weeks and manage to keep it up the whole time. I was already exhausted from just one week of graduation trip. Since this is such an old tradition, no one is bothered by it and it is accepted. Meanwhile, a whole market has emerged around the russetiden. The overalls come from different companies, people are hired to produce a film about their own party time, and musicians are engaged to compose their own song for graduation. It is also customary to have a business card about oneself, which children on the street then demand. The graduates feel like pop stars. Of course, the business cards also need to be printed somewhere. You can only guess how much money is spent during this time. There is also a list of things that you can do during this time. In the past, the progress was marked with a knot on the typical russetiden hat, but this is done less nowadays. If you want to get an impression of how extraordinary the whole thing is, you should really watch a video on YouTube.