A 17th of May in Tromsø : The Russ Invasion!
Almost 200 years ago, on may 17th 1814, the Norwegian constitution has been signed granting Norway its independence towards the Swedish crown. Since then, every year Norwegians celebrate this day as the Norway’s national day.
Something very interesting about it is its very non-military nature. Most of the parade is made by children, students and associations. And the result is a really happy and positive day.
As you can expect from me, I was not able to wake up for the first half of the parade, which was mostly dedicated to children. But I was really curious about one thing : the russ parade!
The russ are the participants of the traditional Norwegian high school graduation ceremony called Russfeiring. They are easily recognizable with their overalls and caps that they have to wear, without washing them, during the whole Russfeiring.
The overall and caps can have different colors:
- Red for students having courses geared towards higher education
- Black for engineering students
- Blue for business students
- Green for agriculture students.
The Russfeiring can last up to one month, with the culmination of the celebration on the 17th of may. During this period, they have to perform stupid tasks to earn russeknuter (russ knots). Of course, the more knots you have, the better! ;)
I couldn’t resist to copy paste Wikipedia for some examples:
Here are some excerpts from the list of the russe knots (and the items you receive):
- Answering every question the teacher asks by reading out loud from a porn magazine (pornographic picture)
- Speak a language other than Norwegian for an entire day (a piece of a dictionary)
- Drink a beer while having two tampons in your mouth (a tampon)
- Order a meal from McDonalds or Burger King without using vowels (a letter from the alphabet)
- Have safe sex outdoors (a pinecone)
- Ask for sex tips from the mother of one of your fellow russ (a safety-pin)
And effectively, those last days I have had the chance to see (and hear) a good number of russ in the streets of Tromsø. Some in their van listening to music loudly, some drinking all night long on the beach, some fishing in the sewers … All wearing this iconic overall with the Norwegian flag.
Their parade is also really interesting. All are in a more or less intoxicated state, but all very enthusiastic.
Their vans are slowly moving through the cheerful crowd. We can hear loud music coming from the back of the vans, soon followed by singing and whistling russ. They are giving “business cards” to the crowd. Children are rushing to get the most cards possible to be able to exchange them afterwards. This is a pure moment of happiness shared between all generations. There is almost no police surveillance but yet no incident. I can feel that everybody here wants everything to go well. And everything went well : no provocations, no arguments nor fights, no negativity…
Another interesting aspect was that most of the crowd was wearing ceremony clothes (I was definitely looking like a hobo that day :s). Some of them wore traditional Norwegian suits, others were more classical and a couple of them were definitely original. The most interesting here was the number of different traditional Norwegian and Sami dresses. Blue, Green, Black, … with different embroideries This was a really wonderful mix of traditions and colors and I could not resist asking people to take pictures of them… And that’s the exact moment in my “photography career” I start to take pictures of unknown people and make portraits. And I must admit that I love that!
Of course, it’s a bit frightening at the beginning. I am quite a shy person, so the first step has been a bit difficult. But once you start, you quickly figure out that most people are surprised and really happy to see that you have some interest in them and have their moment of fame. Of course sometimes you might look like some kind of weirdo wanting to take pictures of nice girls … that actually happened to me once :). But most people are really happy to be photographed.
After a couple of portraits and group photographies, another parade is about to start: the military parade! Well, it’s not really military: they don’t wear any weapon and everybody is smiling. It’s more some kind of military teddy bear’s parade … :). It is quickly followed by musicians and associations: from the karate club, to the association of the small cute dogs looking like hair balls (yes, it exists!), every association of Tromsø is showing in this parade.
We can hear “Hurra! Hurra!” among the crowd and the parade. Once again, everybody is cheerful and happy and everything happens without any incident!
I usually don’t like those kind of events and tend to run away from the crowds but I am really happy that for once I found motivation go there. Despite the crowd, we could easily feel a sense of respect and joy among people. And that’s something which simply makes you feel good at the end of the day. If I had the opportunity to see that again, I would definitely take this chance!
-julien
Sámi people
We already talked a bit about this native ethnic group of Northern Europe on our article about their National Day. Now, in collaboration with our blogging friends from Gluk, here is an illustrated article of the Sámi history!
Who are the Sámis?
Sámis are the native inhabitants of Sápmi. You have probably heard about Lapland (or Lappland, we apparently can write both), but Lapland is the pejorative word for Sápmi as well as Lapp is the pejorative word for Sámi. Sápmi regroups the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
* This is a ‘Gákti’. It is the Sámi ceremonial dressing. The shapes can inform about where the person comes from, her/his marital status and even sometimes her/his family.
In Norwegian language, Sámis are also sometimes called ‘Finn’, from which comes the name of Finnmark (northernmost area of Norway), Finnmark being the only place in Norway where you will find more Sámis than Norwegians. Their language is also called Sámi, but it is actually not one language, but many. Everything becomes really complicated when it comes to languages in this part of Europe! ^^
When everything begins
11000 BC: Ice age is ending. Therefore, new possibilities of settlement opens up for humans on the Arctic coast. Tribes of hunters, fishers and gatherers start to appear in this previously virgin area. They will be the first ancestors of those who are going to be called ‘Sámis’. As a consequence, Sámis are considered as an indigenous population of this area.
Time passing, we see this ensemble of different tribes sharing the same culture being more or less split : The sea Sámis, mainly fishers, and the mountain Sámis, living by reindeer hunting.
The middle ages
1349 is a major date in Norwegian history. It’s the year during which black death decimates over 60% of the Norwegian population. During this time, Norwegian’s diet is rye and wheat based and part of this food is imported through European trade routes.
Plague then comes from the rest of Europe to Norway in the wooden barrels containing this food and other supplies. Sámis at this time are still fishers and hunters and thus are not as much concerned about the plague as the Norwegians do.
After the plague, income revenues of the monarchy drastically diminish, as you can imagine. Sea Sámis are then encouraged to take over abandoned farms (they continued to take over those farms until the 18th century! ). This way, population of sea Sámis grows bigger: nowadays, mountain Sámis population does not represent much than 10% of the Sámi population.
On the other side, mountain Sámis , due to their nomadic way of life, have to pay taxes for each nation they are crossing, which does not really help them to grow actually!
The dark ages
During the beginning of the 17th century, colonization of northern Scandinavia starts. Settlers are mainly practicing farming, which is in contradiction with the nomadic way of life of northern Sámis. Some settlers adapt to their way of life, and some Sámis adapt to the Norwegian way of life, interested in the products farmers can provide (houses, butter, milk, wool, …). But at the end, farming and other activities of the settlers lead to the extinction of species and to the destruction of Sámi hunting culture, which imply starvation for their people. Meanwhile in Sweden, the Nasafjäll mine opens up and Sámis are coerced to work here or be severely punished. Many Sámis run away from this area, but the Swedish government sends troops to prevent that …
At the end of the century, colonization of northern Scandinavia becomes more violent. Sámi polytheist religious practices are punished and holy sites and traditional religious objects as Sámi drums are destroyed.
During the 19th century, Norway becomes an independent country. Norwegian government starts reforms willing to make Norwegian culture and language universal. Sámi is restricted in schools and it is now forbidden to sell or lease lands to non Norwegians. Moreover, christianization still makes it’s way through Sámi communities. In 1852 in Kautokeino, the only Sámi revolt against Norwegian policy involving human deaths takes place. An excellent movie has been made about those riots, and I strongly recommend you to see it: The Kautokeino Rebellion.
This process of “Norwegianization” becomes more and more aggressive until WWII, therefore strengthening independent thoughts and links as a community.
Fight for the future
After WWII, pressure on Sámis is relaxed, but changes take a moment before having any effect. In 1960, the right for Sámis to preserve and develop their own culture is officially acknowledged. Sámi is taught again in schools and institutions are created.
But in 1979 in Alta, the construction of an hydro-electric power station rises up old daemons. A long fight takes place between Sámis and Norwegian authorities that lead in the end to a “compromise”. In 1986, Sámi flag and national anthem are created and in 1989, the first Sámi parliament is elected in Norway.
During the previous decades, Sámis gained more and more rights. Although theory seems to be on the good way, reality is not always that beautiful. Most of the Sámis are now living a “modern” way of life and are no more considered as “under-Norwegians”.
But for those who chose to live the traditional way, cohabitation and environment related problems remains and make their life harder if not impossible… but this might be explained in another article! :)
Big thanks to Céline for the killer drawings! ;)
-julien
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people
http://boreale.konto.itv.se/history.htm
http://www.reisenett.no/norway/facts/culture_science/sami.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_controversy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1pmi_%28area%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_revolt_in_Guovdageaidnu
Tromsø and the polar expeditions
On this Sunday of arctic winter, around noon, night approaches … even if it is not really gone. Fortunately, there are some museums to pass time while learning! :)
I’d rather not talk about Polaria or even the “planetarium”. Disappointment was profound. No, today I want to talk about Polarmuseet, the polar museum. This museum was a great opportunity to learn more about Tromsø, departure city of the great polar expeditions.
The Polar Museum is located in a magnificent building from 1830 that once was a warehouse for customs. It was founded in June 18th, 1978, the 50th anniversary of the death of the famous Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen which is, among other things, discussed in this museum.
We start the visit with a brief presentation of reindeer hunting on Svalbard, northern Norway. This probably began in the 17th century with whalers for which reindeer meat was a good addition to their daily food. Then foxes and polar bears hunters showed up and were also interested in the meat. Then miners, then … TOURISTS! The guys showed up, shooting the animals without even being interested in the meat and left the corpses of slaughtered reindeers rot. And so everything went worse and worse from late 19th – early 20th century. The reindeers population was dramatically decreased to 1000 remaining individuals. Reindeer hunting was then forbidden. We were in 1925.
Afterwards we learnt that the first written records we have of the Svalbard archipelago are Icelandic and date from 1194. Svalbard, in Old Norse, means “Land of cold coast”. The surroundings were very popular throughout the 17th century among English, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish whalers. 50 years later, because of overfishing and climate change (wow, they also had it! ^^), whales had almost disappeared from there. Great … It’s dark outside since we got up and this is what we learn … I’m feeling happy today! :)
Then we get into the hall of sealing, with lots of cute little baby seals … STUFFED! Well, here we can read that sealing has been existing in Norway for about 1500-1000 years B.C.. Tromsø became one of the main places for seal, walrus and reindeer commerce. At least, what was good with seals was that everything was used: meat, skin, fat … but still … hunting of baby seals with hooks, it’s cruel! Baby seals are cuuute! The seal hunt was one of the main activities of Tromsø’s harbour in the 1860′s, with ups and downs during the following decades. It was regulated in the 70′s, thank you Brigitte! :)
Then we went up to the Hall of polar expeditions. Here we can read about several Norwegian celebrities:
- Henry Rudi (1889-1970), “King of the polar bears”: This guy became famous killing 713 polar bears. You will understand why I won’t spread out on his life.
- Wanny Woldstad (1895 – 1959): she was the first “real” woman trapper. Generally, women who accompanied their trappers husbands took care of the house to soften their harsh life. But Wanny was more than that. She was also a great trapper while making life easier for her husband. And she had two children … Well done!
- Roald Amundsen (1872-1928): He is the most famous Norwegian explorer. He was destined to become a doctor, but when his mother died he devoted his life to his passion: exploration of polar regions. He was the first man to lead an expedition to reach the South Pole and was the first to reach the north AND south poles. He died with his teammates (four French and one Norwegian) during a rescue expedition . Funny coincidence, Friday night I went to Christmas dinner with my colleagues from work. The restaurant was called Amundsen!
- Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930): explorer, scientist, humanist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He was one of the major contributors of modern oceanography and one of the main characters of Norway’s independance against Sweden. He then invested to help refugees from World War II. Which earned him his Nobel Prize. When you see a resume like that you tell yourself, “What do I do with my life? Who am I actually?” :)
To summarize this a bit, we have learnt that Tromsø has played an important role in polar expeditions, for better or worse. But when you visit this museum, decorated with old photographs and artifacts of this passed time, one can only imagine how life was tough there … and how their long-haired coats were warm and comfortable!
-julien
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