Once again, the annual performance before Constitution Day has begun: Shall we permit foreign flags in the children’s parade?
Some believe it is “inclusive” for children to carry Turkish, Pakistani, Somali or Palestinian flags side by side with the Norwegian one. Others believe that Norway’s national day ought to be celebrated with the Norwegian flag – exactly as one has always done.
This ought to be self-evident. Nevertheless, we have ended up in a situation where wishing for only Norwegian flags in the 17 May parade is regarded as controversial – indeed, almost extreme. Reflect for a moment on this. On the day we celebrate Norway’s Constitution, independence and freedom, we are apparently to debate whether it is acceptable for the children’s parade to resemble a miniature version of the United Nations!
Some believe it is beautiful. Others see it as a symptom of a nation that has slowly but surely lost its grip on its own identity. The argument for foreign flags is always the same: “The children should be allowed to celebrate their background,” but 17 May is not “my background day”. It is Norway’s day. It is the day on which we celebrate what binds us together as a people – not what separates us.
When we open the door to every conceivable flag, we transform the national day into a multicultural happening in which the Norwegian flag becomes one among many. In that case, we have in reality abandoned the idea of a common national identity. Those who insist upon the right to foreign flags in the children’s parade simultaneously demonstrate how little they truly understand, or care about, what 17 May is actually about. It is not about celebrating that “everyone is equally Norwegian”. It is about celebrating Norway. Full stop.
Norwegian bunad in a few years’ time? Photo: Martin Sylvest/Scanpix Ritzau / NTB
That this debate arises every single year is in itself a sign of how far we have come. Only a few decades ago, the question would have been absurd. Today it is controversial to say that Norway’s national day ought to be marked with the Norwegian flag. We have reached a situation where wanting to preserve something as fundamental as national feeling in the children’s parade must be defended. Meanwhile, as those who wish to turn 17 May into an international flag parade, where rainbow flags and Palestinian flags are waved side by side, the part of the population that still feels proud to be Norwegian suffers.
This is not inclusion, it is dissolution.
Norway is entitled to have a national day in which the Norwegian flag is the nation’s principal focus. It ought not to be necessary to say this aloud, but that is what things have come to.
One may certainly wonder when bunads and suits will also be replaced with leather trousers with super-long rear openings and fully covering niqabs in the children’s parades along Karl Johan.
Surely it is soon time to take Norway and what is ours back again.