Thursday, May 17, 2007

17.MAI

Norways independence day was today, May 17th. Happy birthday to you all!
We've had a glorious day, sunny but cold, but we didn't get any wind either, so it was nice.
The day started in church, with a celebration sermon, then putting down flowers to remember the victims of the war, and then there is the parade! First the flags, carried by the sportsclubmembers. Then the brassband- this year consisting of 8 "cheerleaders", 8 kids playing, and 4 parents helping out...They sounded great though. They played our national anthem amongst others- several times...The parade walks from church to the retirement home, where there are more speeches and singing and playing. Then off to school for games for the kids, coffee and cakes, and even more speeches...
The main thing for the children, seems to be allowed to eat as much icecream as possible! DD2 (Åshild,with the checkered apron) and her friend are doing just that.
The area we stay at, is around the school and footballstadium-or soccer, as some might call it.
We went home for a break in the early afternoon, inviting some friends to join us, and ate "rømmegrøt"(porridge made of sourcream, wheatflour and milk-very heavy, but oooohhhh so good)and hotdogs, which is also a must on this day.

In the evening,DD1 and her classmates of 6th and 7th grade, had a 2hour long play, which was great! Lots of laughing and jokes, and music. They even had a goat on stage. And The King- Elvis Presley himself-came by to see his anchestors birthplace! Is that all new to you, you say? Well, it turned out that his grandfather was born on the small farm of Prestvik, which is somewhere around here...but of course he had to change his name when he came to the U.S.! They had made their own translations of Presley-songs that they performed, and it was really great! We have a lot of actors in this community, I can tell you!
As for the bunad-there were plenty to be seen today! We have a vast variety in Norway, there are so many beautiful ones, and people use them on May 17th, and for weddings and confirmations and so on .Here is finaly a couple of shots of mine.






It has a heavy wool skirt, a green brocade vest, white linen shirt, white linen apron with wool(!) embroidery, and the knitted lace! The belt is woven, I did that too- it is at least 20 years ago, but I have made several for family and friends, and it is great fun, and also they are so pretty! There are a lot of different patterns both for the belt and the apron.
And on the back of the vest, there are silver bands! Of course, there is also plenty of silver...broches, buttons, a chain,...
























We enjoyed our day, and are now looking forward to a long weekend.

Have a lovely weekend, you too!

5 comments:

Judy said...

Marit - Lovely bunad! You did a great job of it.

Judy

Mary B said...

Wow, I would love to see a closeup of the embroidery on the apron. . . Did you make the entire costume?

marit said...

My mom did the embroidery and main sewing of the bunad, I just assembled it, and have made parts of it. I don't like to embroider, so it is better to let her take care of that!
And Mary- there is a close-up of the apron some days ago on this blog.

marit said...

The picture of the apron was posted on May 8th (but I haven't figured out how to link to that...but I will try to take some close ups next week. The backside of that apron is almost as neat and pretty as the front!

Janice said...

Wow! What wonderful pictures! I love the costumes! I would love to be able to eat all the ice cream possible! YuM!!