Sons of Norway, SCHS celebrate Syttende Mai

To many, May 17 is just another day, but for Norwegians — and those that choose to celebrate with them — it’s one of the biggest days of the year.

The Nortonna Lodge of Sons of Norway gathered Sunday to celebrate the holiday, known as Syttende Mai, in the Village of Yesterday, welcoming community members to join them.

The celebration featured all things Norwegian, from language lessons to traditional baked goods and artwork.

“There’s a lot of tradition that came along with the immigrants from Norway and we like to celebrate that,” said Grant Quam, president of the lodge.

While the group has celebrated the holiday on its own for years, this is only the second time they’ve made it a public event. In opening the celebration to the whole community, they’ve found an enthusiastic partner in the Steele County Historical Society (SCHS), which provided the village and the history center for the venue.

Executive Director Jennifer Thiele said SCHS is interested in hosting events that enrich the community and preserving the heritage of the Norwegian immigrants who made Steele County their home.

“We are always aiming to get the community involved in the Historical Society and provide multi-generational opportunities for families. This is a free event. We like to have those partnerships and also offer our own programming that is a balance of free and affordable so there’s no economic barriers to people continuing their education and learning,” said Thiele.

The partnership between the two organization is strengthened by the fact that about half of SCHS’s volunteers are members of Sons of Norway.

Inside the history center, guests had the opportunity to practice the traditional Scandinavian decorative art rosemaling with local artist Dorrie Simon. Simon learned rosemaling for the event, and was stunned to discover the vast array of distinct regional styles that exist in Norway.

Foremost Brewing Cooperative brewed a batch of Norwegian-style beer for the event, giving people the chance to sample a beer that could be on tap at Foremost in the future and submit names for it. Head Brewer Terrence Flynn said he’ll gauge the early responses before deciding whether to add it to their tap list, and that rolling it out would likely take about a year. Flynn said Norwegian beer differs from the German, Irish and French styles he’s accustomed to, with the yeast involved offering a different flavor.

“They just brewed the beer and kind of let the yeast gods do their thing and hope for the best,” said Flynn.

Dennis Rusinko returned from last year, once again showing off replica artifacts from the Viking Age. He took visitors back to a bygone era, chatting about ancient Norse religion and Viking craftsmanship with visual aids including weapons and wood carvings.

While many of the organizers and participants were there to celebrate their Norwegian heritage, they were just as enthusiastic about sharing it with the rest of the community. Even Sons of Norway members claim varying ties to the culture.

Jean Krause noted that Norwegian heritage takes many forms, pointing to Sons of Norway members Dodie Ellingson, who wore an “uffdah” t-shirt, and Jane Voxland, who wore the national folk dress called a bunad.

Voxland’s grandparents came from Norway, and her father’s grew up only speaking Norwegian. His knowledge of the language landed him in a unit tasked with supporting the Norwegian resistance against the Nazis.

Krause, on the other hand, is of German and English descent, though her Norwegian aunt exposed her to the culture when she was growing up. When she first attended a Sons of Norway meeting as a guest, she was told that was “good enough” and she’s been a member ever since.

“They welcome all kinds of heritage,” she said.