Viking Festival and Norway Day being combined in Norsewood

A parade held on Norway Day in Norsewood in 2017. Photo / NZME

When Eva Renbjor was a little girl in Norway, her mother dressed her up in a traditional costume and took her into town.

It was May 17, a special day in Norway as everyone was celebrating Norway Day - the day the country gained its independence from Sweden back in 1814.

Renbjor says the first Norway Day she remembered she hadn't started school yet, so she was about 4.

The family watched the parades that day and then went to a restaurant for sausages and icecream.

It's a tradition everyone in Norway observes, even the sausage, which is described as very similar to a frankfurter, wrapped in bread, with ketchup on top.

"Everyone eats three or four sausages each," Renbjor says.

Her family lives in a small town outside Trondheim, the third-largest city in Norway.

Renbjor says her family doesn't usually go into the city to watch the parades but they do have smaller ones in her hometown.

"Very often I [would] work in a cabin on May 17 in a forest."

Those who like to take a walk in the forest can share a good meal, which includes the sausage and "a lot of cake".

"It's a family day," says Renbjor, who has been living in Norsewood for about the last four years, although she has been back and forth between Norway and New Zealand for about 20 years.

She is also the organiser of the Viking Festival, to be held on the weekend of May 14 and 15.

While May 17 was considered a holiday in Norway, those in Norsewood chose to celebrate Norway Day on the closest Sunday to it.

The village, 20km north of Dannevirke, was originally settled by Norwegians and will celebrate its 150th anniversary this year.

The special day in Norsewood uses many of the same traditions, where they hold a cake competition and children from the local school dress up in Norwegian costumes.

Norwegians from all around the country were also invited to come to Norsewood to help celebrate the day, including the Honorary Consul General Graeme Mitchell.

This year's Norway Day will be held the same weekend as the Viking festival, which was to have been held on Waitangi weekend but had to be postponed due to Covid.

Renbjor says the festival will include music as well as demonstrations of axe-throwing, spear-throwing, tug o' war and speakers talking about life as a Viking.

A demonstration of craft-making at a Viking Festival in Norsewood. Photo / Supplied

She says she thought it would be great to do Norway Day with the Viking festival, as Vikings also showed an interest in the tradition.