17 May – Norwegian National Day and My Birthday!!!

17 May is the official national day in Norway, all shops and offices are closed throughout the whole country. Everyone will get out from morning marching in the streets with their class, or groups they are part of. This is the only day during the year we see the whole royal family coming out on their balcony waving. People will wave the Norwegian flag, and congratulate each other. It is the Constitution Day, which was founded first in 1814. I have never seen any country united together in celebrating the national day as it is done in Norway.

Not only is it the Birth of a Nation, but it also is my birthday. Due to this, everyone always remembers my birthday, so I would always receive a lot of wishes as walking down in our town.




This big day is not only celebrated in Norway, but my all Norwegians living abroad. London Parks will be filled with all dressed up Norwegians who wave the Norwegian flag. Norwegian societies will have events during the whole day with typical Norwegian food (I love these events, it connects me back to Norway again).

During growing up the tradition was to meet up in school in the morning and get ready for the march with our national clothes (I would wear my Iranian national dress), and this would last till noon. Then we would get changed into our sport outfit and meet up for an other march during afternoon with our team. As walking down the streets we would throw the ball to each other and shout out our teams name. It was always a competition while growing up of who would eat most ice cream during the day. In 6th grade we would have a football match between the schools, the whole town would meet up to watch this important game.