Crazy norwegian graduating tradition!!

Red jeans, Tour busses, drinking, partying, small cards with inappropriate jokes, festivals, Parades and heaps of fun, is all a part of May for the graduating students in Norway.



The year we turn 19 or finish our 13th year of school we have one whole month of doing extraordinary things. With much looser reins teenagers really enjoy the month of May here in Norway. There are parties every day and thousands of teenagers travel to “Tryvann” to party.

This probably seems like a totally unharmful way to celebrate the end of school but the fact is there are many downsides with this tradition. The partying actually starts before graduation, so instead of reading and studying teens choose to party late and skip school for several days. This has proven to show great impact on the grades of the students.

All of this counts down to the sevententh of may, it all ends on our national day. So the biggest party of all is on the sixteenth of may. On sevententh of may it is wild in the city, filled with parades and tour busses!
So  "Russetiden" is something you look forward to since beeing a  little kid eventhough it is not ideal. With all ups and downs with this tradition, everyone I have spoken to say that it is totally worth it, and some even say it is one of the greatest experiences in life. It cost a lot of money and takes heaps of time but is a tradition worth following! Great for the community and fantastic fun;))




 

3 kommentarer:

  1. That sounds like it is really fun! In the US, the legal drinking age is 21 so we cannot have fun in high school. We can get in legal trouble if ever caught drinking.

    SvarSlett
  2. The red jeans don't sound bad, but they're supporting drinking. Even if the legal drinking age is 18 there, it doesn't sound good for the school and adults to be supporting drinking at that age. Are there a lot of accidents?

    SvarSlett
  3. Why are teenagers encourage to do "Russ"? Do some people dislike it? How do you feel personally? Where do people go from Oslo?

    SvarSlett