Norwegian Constitution Day

Today is the National Day of Norway. The Constitution of Norway was signed on 17th May 1814 and therefore 17th May is an official national holiday.

There is a very big Norwegian community around Brussels, most of whom are based at NATO. The Scandanavian School of Brussels is an old 'castle' based in beautiful parkland here in Waterloo, and each year on 17th May there is a National parade at the school where everyone dresses up in traditional costume.

Today it coincided with a public holiday in Belgium so we had a day off work, and decided to go and watch the parade.

The costumes are amazing and each area of Norway has it's own colour and design of which you can see a few in this photo. I particularly like the costmes of the Sami (some of which we saw today) who come from the very northern part of Norway known as Finnmark which borders Finland (Lapland).