Welcome back! Of course, you may not have been away, but it is a Scandinavian tradition to disappear and make the most of the short period of long summer days, enjoying ‘friluftsliv‘ – life outdoors.
We usually congregate at the Norwegian Church in October for a social gathering. Sadly, we have had to cancel the event planned for Sunday 20 October as no one was available to run it, due to work and study commitments.
We will be back for the highlights of the year in the run-up to Christmas.
On Saturday 23 November we will meet to decorate the Christmas tree in the church with traditional Norwegian decorations, some of them hand-made.
And then on Sunday 1 December at 3pm we will hold our annual Festival of Light and Friendship.
Save the dates, and please join us at one or both of those events!
It was a great pleasure for WNS to join in welcoming the latest batch of visiting students from Vestland in Norway to Cardiff. They come to spend a year at Cardiff and the Vale College in an association that goes back around thirty years, during which time many firm friendships have been made.
The Deputy Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Cllr Helen Lloyd Jones, welcomed the group in a ceremony at the Mansion House. Kate Keohane, the new Historical Outreach Officer at the Norwegian Church, pictured front left, talked about the long history of Norwegians in south Wales and the Norwegian Seamen’s Mission, which established churches in Cardiff, Barry, Swansea, and Newport, and ran community activities and social services.
Bethan Winter and Kevin Burden of the WNS spoke about the current community of Norwegians and friends of Norway in Wales, and invited the visiting students to make themselves at home at the church, as Norwegians have done in Cardiff for 150 years.
We hope to see the students at our social events and, in between times, in the Norsk cafe at the Norwegian Church.
2023 saw one of the largest celebrations of Norway’s Constitution Day in Cardiff for some years. Post-pandemic, and blessed with fine weather, almost 200 people turned up to join the celebrations, starting with a procession from the Wales Millennium Centre via the Senedd to the Norwegian Church on the bayside.
Martin Price, trustee of the Norwegian Church Cardiff Bay charity, welcomed the procession.
The flag was hoisted over Cardiff Bay after the singing of the National Anthem, Ja vi elsker, accompanied by the band of the Salvation Army.
Torill Heavens, a committee member of the Welsh Norwegian Society, welcomed everybody and led proceedings in the hall. Torill is also a member of the Salvation Army Band that played for us throughout the afternoon.
Cato Syversen, the CEO of the Cardiff-based Norwegian company Creditsafe, and a trustee of the Norwegian Church Cardiff Bay, gave the traditional 17th May speech, explaining the date’s significance to Norway and Norwegians.
The Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Councillor Graham Hinchey, wished everyone “gratulerer med dagen“. The city council looked after church after it closed for services until last year, when it was handed over to a new charity, the Norwegian Church Cardiff Bay.
Nine-year-old Eira Oseng-Rees is a typical member of our community. With a Welsh father and Norwegian mother, she has grown up bilingually in south Wales – which she demonstrated by reading the poem “17. mai er jeg så glad i” – “I love 17th May so much” in both Norwegian and English.
The Church in Norway continues to support Norwegians living, working and studying abroad, even if it has far fewer physical places of worship than in the peak days of Norway’s merchant navy.
Ingrid Ims is a chaplain based at the Norwegian Church in London who works with communities throughout the UK and Ireland. She is especially keen to reach out to Norwegian students in Wales.
Ingrid expanded on Cato’s thoughts about the meaning of 17th May and its place in Norwegian independence.
Remembering the losses that Norway had suffered during its occupation during World War Two, she laid a wreath in the church to remember the fallen.
“Vi lyser fred over deres minne,” she said: We shine peace upon their memory.
The latest group of Norwegian students to spend an academic year at Cardiff and Vale College have arrived in the capital from Cardiff’s twin region of Vestland – the new county surrounding the west-coast port city of Bergen.
Society treasurer Thomas Husøy joined the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of Cardiff & the Lady Mayoress, Cllr Graham Hinchey & Mrs Anne Hincheyat, to welcome them at an event at Cardiff Castle.
We wish the visiting students hjertelig velkommen and hope they enjoy their year making friends and memories in Wales.
Since 1996 a group of Norwegian sixth form students has been coming to Cardiff to experience life and education in Wales.
This year, the group was smaller due to covid but this didn’t impact on the quality of the experience for the students. All of the nine students had a terrific time. They made great friends and enjoyed many opportunities to engage in sporting and cultural activities.
The group comes from the county of Vestland, which is twinned with Cardiff. They studied a wide range of A Level subjects at Cardiff and the Vale College whilst also studying Norwegian (which is a compulsory element of their education).
On Friday 10th June, the group came together with teachers, and the leadership team from Cardiff and the Vale College, friends, their host families and some family members from Norway to say farewell.
What a lovely evening it was! The celebration took place at Dosbarth restaurant situated on the fifth floor of the main Cardiff and Vale College building. It has stunning views over Cardiff and Penarth. The dinner was a lovely blend of Welsh and Norwegian dishes. The group was honoured with the presence of the new Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Graham Hinchey and his wife the Lady Mayoress, Anne Hinchey. It was a delight to have the company of Lisbeth Sjursen from Vestland Fylkeskommune who manages the educational exchange programme.
The Lord Mayor and some of the guests and Ivan Westley (Cardiff and Vale College Leader for the programme) gave lovely speeches about students and their successful academic year in Wales. The students themselves produced a slide show to celebrate the special moments of their year abroad.
Each of the nine students felt they had benefited from their year abroad. For Karoline Byrkne ‘meeting so many beautiful and amazing people has made my stay truly special and memorable.
For Nora Mowinck ‘the best part of my stay has been my amazing and beautiful friends. My host family is absolutely amazing and I have made memories I will never forget’. Ine Arntsdatter Leinum-Johnson said ‘the best part of my stay was getting to know new people, both from Norway and wales. Also getting to know a new culture and learning how to live in a different country and culture has been amazing.’
For Sara Børve ‘the best part of my stay has been the football and my friends. I have made memories and had the best year of my life.’
For Nathalie Liklefjære-Tertnæs the highlights were ‘getting to know new people through college and football, and all the things we’ve experienced such as the rugby, jubilee celebrations and football games’.
For Sebastian Birkeland the only boy in the group he found that ‘ the best part was getting to experience a completely different culture and learning about Britain and its history. I feel I have learnt a lot the past year and have become properly integrated into British culture.’
It was great to hear how much they all enjoyed and benefited from the experience.
We wish them all good luck in their exams and careers and hope that they will act as ambassadors for Cardiff and Wales on their return to Norway.
Welsh Norwegian Society 