Promoting Scandinavian culture in the Greater Vancouver Area, B.C.
Rugged mountains, forests, and coastline: a description of both Scandinavia and the Pacific Northwest. Join Architect AIBC James AV Bligh for a rapid-fire review of Scandinavian urbanism, architecture, and foods that would be right at home in the Pacific Northwest.
Date: Saturday 13 April, 4:00 pm (Musical prelude starts 3:30)
Place: Scandinavian Community Centre, 6540 Thomas Street, Burnaby
Admission: Free, donations welcomed
Scandinavian Community Centre
6540 Thomas Street, Burnaby
How did your family travel to Canada? What dangers and adventures did you encounter along the way? From the time of Leif Erikson until recently, travel from Nordic countries to Canada has been arduous and required imagination, resourcefulness, stamina, and courage. Somehow we all managed to get here.
For our Nordic Spirit 2019 exhibit, the Scandinavian Cultural Society will feature our community’s immigrant travel stories through images, videos, and live presentations.
To donate photos or information, or to help with organization or preparation of the exhibit, please contact Carolyn Thauberger at cthauber12@gmail.com.
Link to download poster:
We are delighted to present a special concert by the Frederiksberg Sogns Pigekor as part of the Leif Erikson DayFestival. This Danish girls’ choir is based in Copenhagen and includes young women 11 to 22 years old. They will visit Vancouver as part of their 2018 tour of western Canada. The group has traveled the world — Japan, Greenland and the United States, as well as various European countries. The program will be a mix of Scandinavian music and Nordic folksongs, sung in both English and Danish.
Admission is by donation.
After the choir’s performance, plan to stay for more! Music will continue as the Centre’s own Nordic Bleu Singers join forces with the Vancouver Spelmanslag in a program of Nordic folksongs, including some Icelandic favourites.
From all of us at the Scandinavian Cultural Society, we wish to express our gratitude for all that Robert did for our organization. He was with the Society from the start in 1985, working with the group of dedicated Scandinavians to organize the revival of the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival, a successful event held in Vanier Park in 1986. With his expertise in photography and filming he recorded the Show in images he later used in his production of the Heritage Photo Show in 2015.
Robert started the “Nordic Spirit Heritage Images Show” series with a production of 100 prints of Icelandic Immigrants featured in 2007. The series became a yearly event that continues to this day featuring immigrant pictures from the Nordic Countries.
Robert served the Scandinavian Cultural Society in various capacities including as the President and newsletter editor.
A celebration of Robert’s life was held at the Scandinavian Centre on Sunday, July 15th, 2018.
In cooperation with the Icelandic Canadian Club of BC, the Scandinavian Cultural Society is proud to celebrate Leif Erikson Day at the Scandinavian Community Centre in Burnaby, BC on Saturday, 13 October, 2018.
The Festival will take an Icelandic point of view, including:
Program Details
12:00 Exhibits open
1:00 Opening Remarks: Scandinavian Cultural Society President Poul Erik Rasmussen and ICBC President and SCCS Vice President, Norm Eyford. Other dignitaries.
1:15 The Leif Erikson Sagas – readings (readers from Reik Felang Norse Recreation Society)
1:30 Erik Nelson, Nordic Museum Director: Our new Nordic Museum in Seattle
2:15 Honorary Icelandic Consul Glenn Sigurdson with his new book related to the history of Gimli, Manitoba – Vikings on a Prairie Ocean: The saga of a Lake, a People, a Family, and a Man (Google books say this is a wide-ranging autobiography that blends personal memoir, family history, and Icelandic lore.)
3:15 Reception with an Icelandic Flavour
4:00 Frederiksberg Sogns Pigekor from Copenhagen (young women’s choir, Scandinavian music and folk songs
5:15 Bar Open and concert reconvenes with Nordic Bleu singers and Spelmanslag folk orchestra: traditional folksongs including several Icelandic favourites
6:30 Dinner with Icelandic flavour ($25). Tickets at marialakes@yahoo.ca (preferred) or 604 569-9370
7:30 Dr. Donald Gislason, retired UBC musicologist and humourist: Viking heritage: Promises and Problems
Presented by the Scandinavian Cultural Society & the Icelandic Club of BC
Financial support from
City of Burnaby FestivalsBurnaby
Danish Canadian Community Centre
Info: cthauber12@gmail.com
Download the flyer
Leif Erikson Day 2018 poster V2
Back by popular demand, Don Mowatt and friends present an updated retelling of the Vikings’ adventures in Canada, a thousand years ago. You’ll get close and personal with the drama of the old sagas and enjoy music by Gammel Dansk folk band during this unforgettable performance.
Nordic Spirit 2018 exhibit, April 14 – 15, celebrates the significant contribution that Nordic-Canadians have made to British Columbia’s fishing industry. Please join us for this exciting event.
Nordic Spirit 2018 poster
Nordic Spirit 2018 –Schedule of events in the hall
Saturday
11:30 Opening & reception
1:00 Interviews with industry veterans Kris Frostad and Inge Noringset
2:00 Videos: The Last Vikings and Herring Hunt
Sunday
1:30 Videos: The Last Vikings and Herring Hunt
This is your chance to hear the Scandinavian Centre’s own fabulous heritage Player Piano!
Learn of its history *** See how it works!
Admire the virtuosity of “maestro” Jarl Christensen *** Be a guest “pianist” yourself!
Enjoy our singers *** Sing along!
Join us for a unique musical experience —
Sunday, 25 February, 2018 — 1:00 pm
At the Scandinavian Community Centre, 6540 Thomas Street, Burnaby BC
Sami at the Centre, February 3 and 4, 2018
Thank you for your help with Sámi Culture and Design
The Scandinavian Cultural Society wishes to thank everyone who shared their precious artefacts and who helped with the Sámi event February 3rd and 4th. It was such a success. Everybody said so. It was the powerful feeling of community that people most noted. Our American visitors particularly remarked on that. Perhaps it is a Sámi thing, but it is also just Scandinavian.
Indeed, support came from every direction. Our own members and groups such as the Swedish Cultural Society and the US Pacific Sámi Searvi were everywhere, working hard. Wherever a hand was need it was there, quietly reaching to help. Leena in our office sent everyone on her list a note about the show. It took only 34 emails between me and Lloyd Binder in Tuktoyaktuk to make arrangements for his best reindeer meat. It came in plastic bags but those were wrapped in a green hide, dripping hairs. Very authentic. An Air Canada Cargo pilot personally put that meat into Poul Erik’s hands with apologies for accidently shipping it back to sender when we didn’t answer our phone. Like some other things, it may taste better if it crosses the Arctic Circle twice. Dave Buckman caught or otherwise acquired the fish. Gunnar Jensen and his wife spent over four hours slicing reindeer meat (and his finger) into 1/8 inch thick pieces and then came back the next day to spend an equal amount of time helping cook it. Didn’t it taste great? The lavvu went up and down safely so our children had that wonderful place to spend their day. Poul Erik slept in it for two nights, guarding. The dinner was cooked and served in a kitchen as hot as the ovens. The fish might have baked if we just set it on the counter. Even recalcitrant microphones and laptops kept going, though sometimes that trick took a Group of Seven. Each of over 100 articles on display was fetched, marked down, tagged, set into a safe spot to be admired, and most important, returned to its owner.
You liked the show. At least 30 of you told me so personally and no doubt many others in the SCS got similar messages. The presenters and award winning films worked well together and gave us pretty fair view of Sámi life then and now. Nobody went home early. It was an outstanding example of our whole community working together to make something special. That is just what we do at our Scandinavian Community Centre.
Here are links to some items from the weekend that were of particular interest to many participants.
Sámi National Anthem Whitehorn translation
Carolyn Thauberger on behalf of
Poul Erik Rasmussen, President,
Scandinavian Cultural Society
