Iceland Part Three - Celebrate Icelandic National Day! -

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Halló! Welcome back my friends and thank you for taking the time to read my travel letters! My adventure in Iceland continued this week with the celebration of Icelandic National Day. I've been learning so much about Iceland, its people and history, and I can't wait to share it all with you!

Photo By Andreas Tille (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0].

Friday, June 17th, was Iceland's National Day celebration. The first one was in 1944 when Iceland claimed independence from Denmark, creating The Republic of Denmark. They celebrated in Pingvellir, a national park where the first parliament of Iceland was founded in 930 AD. The date, June 17th, had been chosen in honor of Jón Sigurðsson's birthday. He was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement, and passed away in 1879. You can click here to learn more about him.

Iceland celebrates their independence with all the fun you'd expect from a country celebrating their origin. Parades and speeches, poetry readings and concerts, and dance performances and street artists are just some of the amazing things you can find here on June 17th!

Anna got her face painted at shop in Reykjavík while we were there to see the parades, just like the girl in the picture. Viktor had his hands full with cotton candy and balloons for him and his sister. Their parents were wearing red, white, and blue hats, the same colors that were on the Icelandic flags all over town. Their mother was wearing a traditional dress called a peysuföt. I saw a few people wearing them, along with another version called the upphlutur. These dresses are usually worn on national holidays here, but they can be very expensive because they are sometimes decorated with gold or silver. (Photo above by Helgi Halldórsson from Reykjavík, Iceland (Happy Icelandic National Day) [CC BY-SA 2.0].)

During the celebrations, I got to learn a lot about Iceland by talking to the people here. After they got used to seeing a walking, talking sun bear, that is! I learned about how Iceland had the world's first democratically elected female president in 1980, and her name was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. She served as president until 1996.

The language here is so interesting to hear. It comes from Nordic and Gaelic, from the original settlers of the island. Because of Iceland's remote location, as well as a determined government and strong sense of cultural pride, the language here has hardly changed over the last thousand years. One of the ways they've kept it from changing is by using their own translation of things, rather than adopting outside terms.

Icelandic Women's National Costume

Photo by Salvor (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Icelandic Men's National Costume Photo below by Kjallakr at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0]

For example, rather than say "television" they call it "sjónvarp", which means "vision projection". This is balanced by the fact that many people here also speak Danish and English, making Iceland a very flexible tourist destination.

As National Day was wrapping up I got to see a school band marching by with many Icelandic flags on poles. School is important to Icelanders, and is free all the way through college here. Remember how most people here speak Danish and English? That's because those are classes that everyone takes in school here. Kids in school here like to play handball and soccer. Soccer is a sport many people enjoy around the world, do you like soccer as well?

Speaking of soccer, Iceland is doing very well in the Eurocup this year, scoring better than anyone expected. Good job guys! Many Icelanders, about 8% of the whole island, are in France right now to support their team. Now that is some amazing cultural pride!

Check out these videos below to learn more. I'll tell you all about my puffin tour below them!

Icelandic National Anthem

Some of the fun festivities you can expect on Icelandic National Day.

Since I was already in Reykjavík for the National Day celebration, I stayed overnight and then went on a puffin tour the next day. I got a little nervous that I might get seasick on the boat, but I've spent a lot of time in tall, swaying trees in West Sumatra, so between that and the calm ocean, I didn't have any nausea. (Photo courtesy of asfafi via Pixabay [CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)]).

The boat was a light blue and called "Huffin and Puffin", and we left early in the morning, passing a couple of amazing sights. The first was the Solfar Sun Voyager, a very unique sculpture by Jon Gunnar Amason. The sculpture is a boat from his dream and an ode to the sun, and resembles an ancient Viking ship. In the early morning sun, the Sun Voyager glistened brightly.

Sun Voyager via Pixabay [CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)]

The second special sight was the Harpa Concert Hall, a beautiful building on the shores of Reykjavík. It opened in 2011 and is home to many fun music and theater performances. Such a unique and pretty building!

Harpa Concert Hall By Ivan Sabljak - commons:File:Harpa.JPG, CC BY-SA 3.0

Then we went out to one of the islands where the puffins make their home this time of year. The puffins were amazing! We couldn't get too close, but the tour guide had binoculars that we could use. The puffins were playing around their nests which they had dug into the ground all over the little island. When they took off to go look for food, their little wings would flap really fast - up to 400 times a minute!

Puffins mate for life and will lay one egg every season. Their beaks turn an even brighter orange during this time of year, and they're nicknamed the "Clown of the Sea". I saw one puffin dive into the water to grab some fish. He was under water for 30 seconds before coming back up with several fish in his mouth! (GIF Above from "The Atlantic Puffin", by Dean J. Burman via YouTube.com).

We know how much many of you kids love puffins as much as I do, so here is a fun craft courtesy of LearnCreateLove to help you make your own puffin at home! Click here for the directions and here to download the template, print and start the fun! Thanks to Griffin and Mia for doing such a great job on their puffins! Click here to have your parent, guardian or teacher send me some pictures of your puffins and what you love about them!