Today, 17th May is Norwegian Constitution Day. There are celebrations in Kirkwall, Edinburgh, towns across Norway, and worldwide. In Orkney the day’s events are organised by The Orkney Norway Friendship Association.

The event gets underway in Kirkwall with a memorial service at the graves of the men who gave their lives ‘For Norge’ in World War 2 at St Olaf’s Cemetery at 10.30am.

At 12noon the Tog will set off from the Kirkwall Pierhead to the Cathedral Market Green.

What is Norwegian Constitution Day and why is it so widely celebrated?

The men who gave their lives ‘For Norge’ and who are remembered in St Olaf’s Cemetery, were killed in World War 2. Nazi Germany invaded the small independent nation of Norway of 3 million people on 9th of April 1940.

Despite its size, courageously, Norwegian resistance held back the German advance enough to allow the government and Royal Family to escape. A Nazi puppet government was set up headed by  Vidkun Quisling, the leader of Norway’s fascist party, which is where to be a ‘quisling’, or traitor, originates from.

Norway suffered greatly under Nazi rule and resistance continued with many Norwegians involved both in their own country and with the Allies. Norway’s merchant fleet, the Royal Norwegian Navy (which had evacuated many of its ships to Britain), Norwegian squadrons under the British Royal Air Force command and several commando groups operated out of Great Britain and Shetland ( The Story of the Shetland Bus) .

At the time of Nazi occupation, Norway was small and not rich. Today that has changed since the discovery of oil in 1969. But for Norwegians the independence of their nation was not something they were going to give up in 1939. Norway had not always been an independent nation because it shared a border with a powerful neighbour, Sweden. The Constitution of Norway was signed at Eidsvoll on 17 May 1814. The constitution declared Norway to be an independent kingdom in an attempt to avoid being ceded to Sweden after Denmark–Norway‘s devastating defeat in the Napoleonic Wars. This established a Union between Sweden and Norway.

The United Kingdoms of Norway and Sweden retained the independence of the two nations but they shared a monarch and foreign policy. This was dissolved amicably in 1905 and Norway elected their own monarch,  Prince Carl of Denmark as the new king of Norway, taking the name of Haakon VII.

It has been no easy journey in the past for Norway to be an independent nation but it is rightly proud of that accomplishment – and it has never looked back.

Some images from previous Norwegian Constitution Days.