National Celebrations from an Outsider's Perspective
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TfK 2-2008 ombrukket.qxd:TfK 1-2-2007 07-09-08 12:27 Side 39 National Celebrations from an Outsider’s Perspective May 17th in Bergen as an Expression of Social Memory Nevena Škrbic‰ Alempijevic‰ Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology University of Zagreb [email protected] Abstract Key words: The focus of this paper is the social memory dimension of May 17th, the Norwegian May 17th, Constitution Day, as organized and acted out in Bergen in 2005. The celebrations are national celebrations, approached through Pierre Nora’s concept of “realms of memory”. The author places social memory, emphasis on the participants’ sensory and bodily experiences. She also discusses the way outsider’s perspective her outsider’s gaze into May 17th reflects the way she experienced national holidays in Croatia. The event is perceived from two different perspectives: by following in the foot- steps of the main organizers, the May 17th Committee members, and by experiencing the day in the company of members of a family living in Bergen. In that way the author obtained some insight into the official discourse about May 17th, as well as into one pri- vate interpretation of the occasion. For these informants, rememberance and the nation- al component played a significant part of their celebrations. The author concludes that not only motifs relating to 1814, the year of the drafting of the new constitution at Eidsvoll, were noticeable at the celebrations. Motifs evoking the Viking era and WW2 were also present. This is why the author concludes that it is the glorious past that soci- eties remember during contemporary May 17th celebrations. In the Realm of Memory is a meeting of the May 17th Committee, th It is two weeks before the May 17 cele- the body to which, according to an agree- brations in 2005, and thirty representatives ment with the town’s government, “the of various Bergen-based companies, insti- centre of Bergen belongs on May 17th“, as tutions and influential societies gather in its members have pointed out to me. The the conference room of Rick’s Hotel. This richly decorated interior refurbished in old- Tidsskrift for kulturforskning. Volum 7, nr. 2 • 2008, s. 39-54 39 TfK 2-2008 ombrukket.qxd:TfK 1-2-2007 07-09-08 12:27 Side 40 fashioned red wallpaper and gilt chande- with the aim of conducting a study entitled liers form a perfect setting for the narratives “National Celebrations as Expressions of of the Committee’s history dating back to Social Memory”. I have approached 1847 and its importance for the character national celebrations as realms of memory, of the celebrations “as the people of Bergen as the French historian Pierre Nora has know it” (Sletten 1985:14; www.17- defined them (1996). Nora includes not mai.no). Many details are yet to be only physical places in this term, but also resolved: the number and order of groups events that conquer and transform spaces in the main parade, the positioning of may- in a specific way, such as commemorations, poles and stands where participants can anniversaries and festivals, all of which can buy their party supplies, the christening of be used by group members to embody the brand new Viking ship named after images of their past. The memories that Olav Kyrre and positioned at the celebrations evoke have not frozen; they Festplassen Square as the Committee’s gift don’t rely on objective accounts of past to the citizens of Bergen. The majority of events. On the contrary, it is a “notion pro- members arrive a bit early and are chatting duced, defined, established, constructed, and laughing, asking me about my native decreed, and maintained by the artifice and country and how I cope with the rains of desire of a society fundamentally absorbed Bergen. It resembles a conversation by its own transformation and renewal” between old friends. At 19.30 sharp, for (1996:6). For this reason, national celebra- when the meeting was scheduled, the chair- tions play a major role in the community’s man bangs his hammer on the table. It identity politics, sustaining a sense of same- seems to me as if the atmosphere in the ness over time and space. Still, through room, and the people themselves, change commemorative practices this representa- instantly. Everybody straightens themselves tion of sameness is constantly revised and in their chairs, opens their May 17th fold- adjusted to the actual social and political ers, banishing all petty everyday subjects context (Gillis 1994). Contemporary cele- from their conversations, as well as the brations can, thus, be seen as an echo of the laughter from their lips. The singing of group members’ current attitudes towards “Vær hilset, Bergen” (“Greetings, Bergen”) their historical background. They can, of put the participants in the right mood. course, encompass many diverse practices They are ready, in the words of several and meanings attributed to them by indi- Committee members, to take part in some- vidual participants. The evocation of the thing serious, honourable and important. past does not necessarily have to be at the Passing through the solid door with the heart of such events: the people who engage note “May 17th Committee”, I felt as if I in them can, for instance, view them as are- was stepping into a place reserved for nas for festivity and fun, innovative, vari- upholding the community and the nation’s able and unrepeatable, dealing with present past, a place where the common denomi- concerns rather than with the birth of a nator of individual experiences is highlight- nation. But the past remembered during ed and contemporary performances and celebrations is innovative, variable and new cultural production are given a sense unrepeatable as well; remembered past can of continuity; a privileged place to be for a also be fun, as I learnt from the May 17th Croatian ethnologist who came to Bergen celebration in Bergen. In this context, I will 40 Nevena Škrbic‰ Alempijevic‰ TfK 2-2008 ombrukket.qxd:TfK 1-2-2007 07-09-08 12:27 Side 41 not be approaching the remembering of the When dealing with social memory, we are past as a process of trans-generational trans- not venturing into the territory of a mysti- mission of facts built into the very founda- cal communal mind – it is always individ- tions of national community. For many uals, the members of the group, who participants the references to the past serve remember. This also applies to historical to achieve a sense of national continuity, memory, which does not relate to personal- which is highly important when they ly experienced events of the past, but reach- define their community’s sense of identity es people through written and other types over time; what being a Norwegian means of records, and can be kept alive through today. This is why, among many possible commemorations, festive enactments, etc. approaches to the celebrations, I have cho- (Halbwachs 1992:23-24). Once I had sen the social memory dimension of May acquired an overview of all the different 17th as the main focus of my study. I have groups, families and individuals who cele- tried to follow this thread while looking at brate May 17th in their own fashion, my the different ways of preparing for and cel- next problem was to decide whose experi- ebrating the day, the equipment and cos- ence to study. Obviously there was no way tumes used and the narratives that explain I could take in all the diverse voices of peo- the participants’ involvement. The expres- ple attending, or choosing not to attend the sions of social memory that I studiedi in celebrations. The most dominant voice Bergen have triggered another corpus of which is heard most easily, is the official memories: my own. My personal views and narrative of what the celebrations should be previous experience of national celebrations all about, what ceremonies should be in my own country has influenced the undertaken, which performances should be prism through which I observed the prac- attended, and which memories of the tices in Bergen. I have therefore found it is nation’s past are expected to be evoked. important to explain what my outsider’s There is plenty of material for shedding view on the celebrations entail and in light on this aspect. It is, for instance, which way I tried to study the variety of explained in a publication entitled Atter er experiences that people draw from the cel- dagen opprunden, published by Bergen’s ebrations. May 17th Committee Bergen (Sletten 1985).2 Although very useful to a cultural scholar, since it explains the emergence of Where the Abstract becomes Concrete the celebrations and their history, this How can a scholar who studies national account introduces no multivocality, no celebrations grasp something as fluid and interpretations relating to people who are abstract as memory, an attitude towards not involved with organising public events one’s past? This issue has been dealt with by yet taking part and enjoying the festivities Paul Connerton, who has found the con- and thereby effectively producing their cretisations of social memory in bodily own events. It is a view from behind the practices performed during commemora- stage, presented as an authoritative source. tive ceremonies (Connerton 2003:88). My In the words of the chairman of the May decision was therefore to bring the practical 17th Committee: “This book gives the and sensory sides of the celebrations to the whole truth - everything you will ever want forefront (comp. Frykman and Gilje 2003). and need to know about May 17th.” National Celebrations from an Outsider’s Perspective 41 TfK 2-2008 ombrukket.qxd:TfK 1-2-2007 07-09-08 12:27 Side 42 One of my objectives was to find out preference in their capacity as a Committee how the stage was set for the national cele- representative or as a member of their own brations by the event organisers.