Somewhat ironic...

After hundreds of years under first Swedish, Danish and then Swedish rule again, Norway's independence day has been reduced to the following combination of nationalism and nature:

Norwegian flags and birch branches - the most common form of decoration

However, it isn't really so much an independence day as it is the date for when our founding fathers wrote and signed our constitution in 1814. To show everyone how proud we are of our fine, peaceful and democratic nation, we put on national costumes that are the same they were back then and before - differing only from county to county:

The girls in their national dresses - aren't they pretty?

Carina and Kaja in their 'bunad':)

Now, of course these fancy festive occasion-clothes are ridiculusly expensive, so some of us just dress up:

Christer, Geir and Fredrik doing an intertwined toast of cognac.

Obviously this wonderful celebration of the birth of our nation is marked by the coming together of friends and fellow classmates, where one eats good food (see below) and enjoys fine liqeour (see above) as the pictures show, so as to get at least mildly intoxicated.

All the food at Rokken's lunch-gathering
Janne, Turid and Kaja at the info-students' brekkie-gathering

All in all the day consists of eating, eating, drinking, eating, more drinking, parade, and a concert to top it all of. Luckily this year the weather was nice. The sucky part for me was that I had to study:(

Me and my darling Lene C.