Celebrating Norway's Constitution Day in Ballard, the Scandinavian neighbourhood of Seattle, was a bizarre experience. The place was booming with Norwegians living or visiting Seattle, Americans with Norwegian heritage and other Americans curious to see what it was all about. The dress code varied from the traditional bunad to viking and troll costumes. The scale of the festivities surprised me; there must have been thousands of people there to watch the parade that lasted over two hours.
There were various things going on from about 11am until 8pm. These people are listening to a male choir of Norwegian-Americans singing in Norwegian. The songs were supposed to be traditional , but besides the national anthem, I had not heard a single one of them before.
Usually rainy Seattle surprised everyone with temperatures in the 20s and sun.
There were a lot of Scandinavian, Nordic and Norwegian clubs participating in the parade. 
All the local schools participated and we had some great marching band performances.
I met two Swedish and Finnish girls on the train to Seattle, and they decided to join me celebrate.
Norwegian soda. Unfortunately, no one was selling Norwegian sweets.
My very Scandinavian lunch. 
Dagfinn Høybråten, a prominent Norwegian politician, was also there to celebrate. 
4 comments:
Hurra for 17.mai:)
Hilste du på? Minnet kanskje på at Margit svigermoren hans var nabo på Buøy? Ikke det nei! Her spiser vi oss fra selskap til selskap. Siste var Fredrik (20) den 18. Kjekt å følge deg på reisen. Når vil du være i N.Y.
Kjekt å se bilder og lese:)
Gratuler for 17 mai! Hurra.
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