Please join us for Leif Erikson Day, Saturday, 21 October, 2023!
Down load the flyer here Leif Erikson Day 2023
Leif Erikson Day 2023
September 25, 2023 by ·
Scandinavian Folk Music Concert
May 8, 2023 by ·
ELISE BOEUR & ADAM IREDALE-GRAY
at the Rogue Folk Club, Thursday, 8 June 2023
Members of JUNO nominated, Canadian Folk Music Award winning neo-folk quintet Aerialists, Elise Boeur & Adam Iredale-Gray explore fiddle music in fluid, easy lockstep. Fiddler and Hardanger fiddle player Elise Boeur draws from the wells of Norwegian and Swedish fiddle music, melds in fistfuls of arcane influences, and emerges with a multi-faceted sound grounded in Nordic traditions.
Sámi National Day 2023
February 5, 2023 by ·
Sámi National Day 2023
February 6, 2023
Sámi Heritage and Culture
Download Carolyn Thauberger’s presentation–
Sami Culture for UBC 2021 updated 2023
The Sámi flag above is one of the two official flags of Norway. Sámi people have established a strong political presence in Norway which now recognizes this Sámi flag as one of the country’s two official flags. They are flown together on state occasions, the Sámi flag beneath the Norwegian one. Designed by Astrid Båhl, the red part of the circle symbolises the sun, the blue part the moon. The colours red, blue, green and yellow reflect the Sámi national costume. Green symbolises nature, blue water, red fire and yellow the sun. The Sámi call themselves “The people of the sun”.
Sámi people call their home territories “Sapmi”. These lands lie across the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Russian Kola Peninsula. There are 100,000 Indigenous inhabitants in this area. Ancestors of the present-day Sámi have inhabited the area since the birth of Christ and likely much longer. At least 30,000 people of Sámi ancestry live in North America.
The Sámi are a people with a rich and powerful culture one they have held for thousands of years. They are noted for their skill in living successfully in a cold environment and for their cooperative and peaceful social connections (at least before the deliberate introduction of alcohol by politicians wanting to control the Sámi lands and gather taxes from a weakened population). Some believe Sámi people may even have come to the Sapmi areas just after the last Ice Age left 10,000 years ago. Archeological evidence is limited for a nomadic people but studies of language and culture seem to support this. Considering their success there is likely much we can learn from the Sámi about living in a northern climate and about peaceful social organization.
Scandinavian Cultural Society AGM 2023
January 27, 2023 by ·
The AGM of the Scandinavian Cultural Society
Will be held on Monday 27th February 2023 7:00 pm at:
Danish Lutheran Church Library
6010 Kincaid Street, Burnaby, B.C. V5G 4N3, to:
- Consider the directors reports.
- Consider Financial Statements for the year ending 31st December 2022.
- Elect directors, Group A.
- Transact such other business as may properly come before the Meeting.
Attendance at this Annual General Meeting is open to all group and individual members.
Dues may be paid at or prior to the meeting.
Dated 30th January 2023.
By order of the Board of the Scandinavian Cultural Society.
Leif Erikson Day 2022 — Nordic Exploration and Indigenous People
September 13, 2022 by ·
To celebrate Leif Erikson Day 2022, we’re marking several anniversaries — all pertaining to Scandinavians who formed significant relationships with indigenous people as they explored Arctic North America.
It’s been 1000 years, give or take a few, since Gudrid the Far-Traveler journeyed from Viking Greenland to Vinland (Newfoundland). She mixed with the local native people and gave birth to the first European baby born in North America before returning home.
100 years ago, the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen received the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work with refugees from World War I and other conflicts of the time. Nans
en had gained international stature from his explorations in the Arctic. When he crossed the Greenland ice cap in 1888, his team included two Sámi members, and they got to know Inuit groups on Greenland’s east and west coasts.
2022 also marks the centennial of Knud Rasmussen’s 5th Thule Expedition. From 1922 to 1924, Rasmussen, with several Inuit team members, crossed the width of Canada’s North, gathering ethnographic information about all the Inuit communities along the way. Since Rasmussen was perfectly at home with the Inuit, he documented stories and cultural practices that were soon to change drastically as the area was
colonized.
We’re looking forward to sharing these stories about Norse explorers and the indigenous people they lived and worked with.
Download the poster —
Leif Erikson Day 2022 poster edited
Slider 1
January 30, 2022 by ·
Slider 2
January 30, 2022 by ·
Slider 3
January 30, 2022 by ·
Slider 4
January 30, 2022 by ·
