17th May! Hip Hip Hurra!

The 17th of May Celebrations was something that was told to me time and time again. My husband was very anxious for me to celebrate it!
The first thing that struck me is his comment of ''What are you wearing?' almost 3 days before.
EH? Wha ah WEARING? ... Lemme see ... is 'spring' (uhh....doh mind it real HAIL and ting in de afternoon) but I was thinking .... er .. something warm? like a sweater and a jeans or something? ....
''Well I'm wearing my suit''  hm! I guess that means NO.....
eehhh heeeehhhh??? Suit? Well oui papa! ... Is celebrating watching a parade in REAL style deez people does do oui! ..
I think that MUST be a first? .. Where else in the world do people DRESS up to go watch a parade .... No one even THINKS about 'dressing up' to go watch the Independence day parade in Trinidad.... daiz real sweat marks in yuh nice Boss Suit!
No dearies .... I needed to look for my Spring best. And that was ?? .. Yea ... your guess is as good as mine! ... What is spring clothes ANYWAY? ... if spring clothes is what I see in the stores now ... that is NOT something I am prepared to wear in 10C weather! .. Unless the sun came out in FULL blast and glory I was going to look for something that would not leave me with my shoulders hunched up for the whole day ( how does hunching your shoulders make you warmer anyway? Is there a pychological reason for that?)
None the less the morning of the 17th of May I woke up to a dull blasting sound. Is that someone blasting rock? .. Hitting something? .. no ... those were the canons in Bergen heralding the beginning of the day!
I couldn't wait to put up the flag.  Yes 17th of May is the ONE day that perhaps EVERYONE who owns a flag pole in their yard is expected to put up a Norwegian Flag.  We had one too! :) And I was the eager beaver who woke up at 7 something just to put it out. 
Now if yuh know me .. just KNOWING that it was 10C outside is usually enough to make me a lady and let the guy do the cold work ... but I was enjoying my little childlike glee.

Showered and dressed I had one little summer dress (cuz I don't know the difference between spring and summer in dresses- they looked the same) with a sweater and a jacket over that and some flat boots for walking around.

The first thing that struck me is almost EVERYONE in the traditional bunad. Bunad is the traditional dress in Norway. They are made of wool and have beautiful embroidery on them.  There are many, many different types in Norway and they each represent a specific area in Norway.  So that makes for nearly 200 of more different types of Bunads there can be.... and I'm just guessing.

I was amazed at how the young and old even many young men were wearing the traditional dress.  Apparantly it has been something that was not always so popular. Bunads are very expensive things. Some bunads can take as many as 300 hours of hand embroidery for the complicated patterns on the women's dresses, and the headdress, gold or silver jewelry, broaches, purses, shoes etc must push the cost of owning one hand made for you to over $10,000kr! It makes for a very expensive 17th of May if you have too many kids .... yea ... ouch!

The parade itself, sorry Norway, was just interesting... not fantastic. It actually occured to me that it was more like a OLE MASS parade we have in Trinidad - placards and all! There was the normal stuff like what you would think - Police, Fire, Army, Marines, Marching bands, School Bands, War II Veterans  and all those great stuff in Uniform.  Then we had Pensioners with placards, Medical students with funny signs like 'Don't stop smoking, we need work', Veteran Vehicles (including an old fire truck) and convertibles (with the "wealthy" in it!!). Then they had schools -Primary and secondary schools, University students with something to say, Radio people, even a Jazz club.  Then at the end they had the Russ - Follow the link and read about it ... its graduation for school leaving students. It sounds like typical school leaving stuff .... great at that age ... questionable the year after!
They walked all along the road and sometimes having 2 sections walking past going in opposite directions ( i was not sure why).  Everyone stood on the side and cheered and waves flags in their beautiful bunads.

Afterwards, I'm told, people usually go to schools around where they live and have hot dogs and ice cream! It sounded like fun, but I'll wait until I actually HAVE to go to one before I wear myself out of the experience! LOL! ENT????

That was what was in the city. However, on our way out to the city we saw many of the children in the area (and parents too) all walking or driving over to the schools and barnehagens in the area to have their own parade in the streets followed by ice cream and hotdogs and a great ole May Fair time! ... That I will have to see later on.

So it sounds like a wonderful day! One to look forward to every year for kids and adults alike.

But now ... I'm jealous .... like I said the most beautiful thing was the traditional dress and the way everyone was a part of it ... I mean even the guys and old men looked sooo cute with their little 3\4 pants and stockings!!!
So another question.... Should I get one?  I'm from Trinidad .. and I thought it would be great to have a 'bunad' of my own .. one that could showcase Trinidad and the migration or something ... one that would blend .. but stand out with its own beauty .. and one that I can proudly wear to show my merging into the country ...
I looked at the Best Village Dresses and thought that might be a wonderful start!!! Including the headdress!!!
Whey yuh say?
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