Re: [vox] [OT] russian holiday

[Marianne Waage <mwaage@ucdavisMAPS.edu>]

On Thu, May 09, 2002 at 02:31:02PM -0700, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
[...]
> this was interesting to me on a couple of accounts:
> * russia celebrates victory over germany in WWII MUCH more than we do.
>   we pretty much don't celebrate it.  rather, we half-heartedly make
>   v-day a holiday.  over there, it's a huge national celebration, to
>   this day.

The Norwegians also celebrate victory over Germany. It's their Independence
Day, May 17th.  My mom gets together with some of her local Norwegian 
friends and they have a fairly decent party, everyone dressing in the 
national colors...which happen to be red, white and blue. :)

It's much more of a celebration than what I've generally seen for July 4th.

> * i thought it was interesting he said "the fascists" rather than what
>   most americans would say -- "nazis".  i almost wonder if there's a
>   value system implied here.

The few times I've heard Norwegians mention it, it's just their 
"Independence Day".  When I asked my mom specifically, she said over the
Germans.  She even remembers when she was a kid, working at her father's
pastry shop, some of the older Norwegians wouldn't come into the shop if
there was a German in it.

I think it's not as huge a deal for us, just because the Nazis didn't
occupy the U.S.

-Marianne
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