Monday 17 May 2021

Norwegian National Day: May 17th. Constitution Day

On May 17, 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was signed in Eidsvoll.

Det berømte maleriet «Eidsvold 1814» ble malt av Oscar Wergeland 70 år etter grunnlovsforsamlingen og gitt som gave til Stortinget i 1885. Christian Magnus Falsen står oppreist og leser fra Grunnloven, mens sorenskriver Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie sitter ved siden av. I maleriet kan rundt 70 personer av Riksforsamlingens 112 medlemmer identifiseres.[1] Bildet henger i Stortingssalen.

Norway was not really just Norway at that time we were under Danish rule, Denmark-Norway. And after our constitution we thought we would be a soveraign state but then Sweden did like the thought of being king over Sweden and Norway and so we were under Swedish rule but a bit freer in Sweden-Norway. But in 1905 we got our own King Haakon and then we really ruled ourselves in a parlamentary monarchy.

For reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com

Celebrating National Day in Norway (May 17, 2021), or everything has changed since Covid19

Last year I also celebrated National Day in Norway indoors just looking at Norwegian TV showing all the new ways to celebrate after covid19. This year I will also be watching a bit TV but just not all day. 

(Photo from http://tv.nrk.no/)

Last year (2020) in January my dad died. He was 91,5 years when he died and he had Alzheimers disease and was at the end confined to his bed. The institution he was living in did a great job caring for him. I was lucky enough to sit by his bed on his last day. I hold his hand and I told him we would be fine and that he could pass on now. And so in that night he died. He lived a full life before Alzheimers caught hold of him. Luckily he still knew who he was talking to but his memory was shorter and shorter. My regret is that I never asked my parents a lot of questions about their childhood or even how they met. This is the lesson we should learn: talk and learn from our people while they are still around.

In February I visited Berlin, Germany for Medea by Cherubini. In March I visited again this time for 3 operas by Meyerbeer. I had further plans for a visit to Canary Islands and Sevilla, Spain and I was just making everything ready when I got a call from work about the shutdown. So suddenly I was cancelling operas here and there and flights but I got the money back from the insurance company so I was good. 

Obviously I could have continued blogging because I did not get the virus or anything but it just took the wind out of my sails this new situation. 

Where I live it has been very few infections due to Covid. Had I been living in Bergen or Oslo life would have been so different due to much denser population and more infections.  

I work as librarian so you would think it would not be possible for me to work from home but library work is quite diverse so of course many things has to be done in the library itself. Because of Covid19 our library chat-room got off much quicker than it normally would. We had been talking for years about having chat, but it was so difficult and impossible. Then chat came and became normal and so now we have librarians that can answer students and staff online from their home. We all have workcomputers that take with us home so that we can work from home even if you feel a little bit ill and it works. And who have not heard about ZOOM this days. Tomorrow I have 2 meetings I have to attend to and I can do that from home because of Zoom and I really think it has been helpful in making our meetings more effective. Luckily my meetings last only 1 hr each. Longer zoom-meetings are really tiresome and gives you head-ache. Longer than 1 or 1,5 hrs than you need breaks but still... Whole days on zoom that must be hell.

        

For reviews from my travels, see www.operaduetstravel.com