Constitution Day in Norway - May 17, when children parade through town and almost nobody works

Constitution Day in Norway is on May 17, commemorating the constitution signed at Eidsvoll in 1814. Children parade through town in costume, streets are lined with red, white and blue, and by long custom almost nobody works.

The one-line summary

Norwegian national day on May 17, marking the 1814 constitution. Federal category, iconic tier. One of only two Norwegian public holidays with no religious basis.

Origin

In 1814 Denmark was under siege by Napoleon and the King of Denmark had signed a treaty binding Norway to his own fate. Norwegian representatives gathered at Eidsvoll Verk in April 1814 and spent months arguing out a constitution - largely borrowed, deliberately, from the American and Spanish constitutions they admired.

The constitution was adopted on May 17, 1814. It is among the oldest constitutions in Europe still substantially in force, and it was written in a single contested sitting rather than over a period - a fact Norwegian civic tradition treats as the source of the day's intensity. Norway entered a personal union with Sweden in November of the same year, and did not become independent again until 1905.

When it falls

May 17, fixed. It is the second of two Norwegian national days that are non-religious: May 1 is Labour Day, Constitution Day is the other. There is no substitute-day rule - the day is kept on the date regardless of the weekday.

How it is observed

Children parade through town in costumes representing their schools or neighbourhoods, waving small Norwegian flags, while adults line the streets behind rows of red, white and blue bunting. Each town elects its own Children's Day mayor - a real office, chosen by the town's children for that day - and the mayor makes a short speech.

By long-standing practice the day is also kept by most workplaces, including most of the private sector, which is why it functions as a de facto day off even for those to whom the public-sector holiday rules do not strictly apply. The day also runs to several weeks of surrounding activity, and the electoral campaigns that accompany May 17 have their own rhythm.

Public status

Constitution Day is a Norwegian public holiday, one of ten in the national calendar. It carries far more civic weight than any Norwegian church holiday, because Easter, Pentecost and Christmas are also public holidays and are more formally observed as religious feasts. May 17 is the one day of the year that belongs unambiguously to the constitution.

Where it is contested

May 17 is not contested. The only live question is the boundary between public holiday and workplace custom: the legal entitlement covers the public sector and those with written agreements, while the wider practice of not working is unwritten but near-universal, and occasionally disputed by employers who regard it as a custom rather than a right.

Related holidays

May 17 is Norway's only constitutional national day, alongside the non-religious Labour Day on May 1. It is the Nordic counterpart to constitutional days elsewhere - though Norway's is unusual in that it commemorates the signing of a constitution rather than the granting of a charter or an independence won by war.

Sources

• Storting (Norwegian parliament)(the Eidsvoll constitution, the 1814 assembly and the constitutional status of the day).
• Norway official(May 17 observance, the Children's Day parade and the custom of not working).
• Encyclopaedia Britannica - Norway(the 1814 constitution, the union with Sweden and the Norwegian holiday calendar).
• Visit Norway(contemporary celebration, parades and the bunting tradition).