May 17th was Norway’s Constitution Day, also known as Syttende Mai, and Petersburg’s heavily Norwegian-American community celebrated the holiday in a big way. The town hosted days of events during the annual Little Norway Festival, drawing large crowds to see cultural presentations, street games, and the Vikings and Valkyries roaming around town.
Members of Norway’s delegation to the United States came to see Petersburg’s festivities last week. KFSK’s Taylor Heckart spoke with Norwegian Honorary Consul for the State of Alaska Lise Kristiansen, and Ambassador Anniken Huitfeldt.
Huitfeldt was appointed to her role in August 2024, and this was her first time celebrating Syttende Mai in Petersburg. She said there’s so much about the island town that reminds her of home.
Listen here:
TRANSCRIPT:
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Anniken Huitfeldt: First and foremost, you can smell Norway immediately after arriving here.
Everything feels so Norwegian here. I mean, the mentality, the flags you see everywhere, the sweaters. I saw so many kids dancing Norwegian folk dances. They sang the Norwegian national anthem in Norwegian. That was actually very, very moving, I think.
Taylor Heckart: I have heard that we might celebrate the 17th of May even harder than they do in Norway, is that true?
Anniken Huitfeldt: Yes, it’s true.
You have a parade for very many days here. We only celebrate with parades for one day in Norway. All this, this is more like a festival, right here in Petersburg?
Taylor Heckart: Yes, it definitely feels like it.
Anniken Huitfeldt: Yeah.
Taylor Heckart: This is my first 17th of May celebration too. It was so cool watching all of those children do all of those folk dances. I did see that you got pulled up to do some dances too, how was that?
Anniken Huitfeldt: It was very funny. I used to do that when I was a kid, but it wasn’t that popular back home when I was a kid. They had a great time, I think.
Taylor Heckart: And everyone in this room is wearing just absolutely beautiful bunads. Can you talk to me a little bit about what you’re wearing and what that means?
Anniken Huitfeldt: Well, bunads are not so old in a way, to be honest, but they kind of picked up traditions and features from the past when we got our independence. Maybe you can say something about yours, Lise.
Lise Kristiansen: My name is Lise, and I’m the Norwegian Honorary Consul for Alaska, and I am wearing a bunad that really warms my heart. My grandmother made this, and it’s called the Norlandsbunad. It’s from far up north, above the Arctic Circle, and it comes in either green or blue. She made this all by hand, and she embroidered every single piece of fabric on here by herself. We are the same size, so I feel like I have a little piece of her as I wear this.
Taylor Heckart: Wow, that’s beautiful. I really love how bunads are so connected to their families.
Lise Kristiansen: Yes, for a lot of Norwegians, it’s the most expensive piece of clothing that they have, because of the silver that’s on it. And you could even get bunad insurance to insure it, because it is quite a thing that you want to keep preserved for your family.
Taylor Heckart: And, Lise we have you talking, can you talk a little bit about other 17th of May celebrations that maybe happen in the US?
Lise Kristiansen: Oh, well, absolutely.
So it is really fabulous how Norwegians have a lot of pride in their heritage and their culture, and 17th of May brings that all together with flags and parades.You can find Norwegians celebrating all across the world.
In Anchorage, where I grew up, we would march around the park strip and have some music and speeches. The two big traditions of Norway on the 17th are eating hot dogs and ice cream, and so we would do that, and they still do that today.
Taylor Heckart: I love the hot dogs and ice cream, because that also feels very American!
Anniken Huitfeldt: It is, and that’s a part of the story too. Just to tell you about my bunad from Rogaland, my grandmother also gave this to me.
Rogaland and Stavanger is really the oil capital of Norway, and everything was developed by assistance from people in the United States. So they came over to Norway, [and] brought with them barbecue, filter coffee, drip coffee, tacos, pizza, everything.
So we think barbecue, that’s a Norwegian tradition, but it isn’t. So things that we in Norway thinks are very, very Norwegian, it’s really not.
Taylor Heckart: I love that. And that’s so cool, considering that your job is to be between Norway and the US. And to that we have a ton of Norwegian Americans and. Petersburg, what is it like being able to come to a community like Petersburg that has such big Norwegian influence?
Anniken Huitfeldt: It’s very, very special.
