Syttende Mai

Happy Syttende Mai! (Seventeenth of May). If you're Norwegian, it's Constitution Day. Hooray!

Although I'm not a Norske meself, growing up in the upper midwest, it'd be almost impossible to ignore the great many ties to the nordic homelands of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland that still exist here.

Throughout the years I've come to appreciate these weird cultural idiosyncracies, such as lutefisk, St. Lucia Day, lefse, and Garrison Keillor. But it took me a while to get there.

Yessir, rotten fish, flaming candles, orange wooden horses and burnt potato pancakes is what we get. To all those white people out there who claim they have no culture, I'd point to this and say: Now you see why we don't talk about it!

M.