"What makes nation unique"
Sorry, can't help it, I had to post this too:
The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation by Abraham Lincoln. Haha!
Don't forget to click on HOME on the web page. Guess where it takes you?
Also, kind of unrelated, October 9 from now on has been declared the LEIF ERIKSON DAY in USA, by George W. Bush. The president said:
"I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs to honor our rich Nordic-American heritage."
Some midvinterblot and pillaging anyone? Salted herring and potatoes? Small rustic pony riding and helmets without horns for all kids under 4? Run stone carving classes for school children? By the way, my kids are mightily impressed by the fact that they have real viking blood in them. Their classmates barely believe them of course, they see vikings as some kind of dead race or group that went extinct.
8 comments:
If the kids in school think the vikings are extinct there partly correct, nobody lives a viking life nowadays...
But there are other Americans that believe otherwise...as an old american woman once asked JH when he worked at the Royal Castle in Stockholm; -Do you have the same problem here in Sweden with the vikings as we have with the indians?
True story, and part of the reason why I think a lot of Americans know to little about the world.
Maybe viking life is extinct, but their blood line goes right down to modern Swedes, through medieval times. You are sharing genes and DNA with some old viking woman, I bet!
Funny story about the American. They did a study a year or so ago, and only 25% of Americans could point out Iraq on a map.
I certainly feel related to the vikings, they are my ancestors for sure. And if somebody would doubt, my chosen alias is Snotra Viking. I´m not the only one who chose this combination, so there are a few viking wannabees out there. When I go to a place by the lake Mälaren and find out that the name on the rune stone is the same as todays map, a farm name, I feel the time passed and history strongly. And I know runes, if only partly but given time I can understand what it says on the rune stones...because of my icelandic language skills.
I´m a Viking for sure!
So G.W. Bush think he´s innovative? He´s a copycat...
"Though many still regard Christopher Columbus as the discoverer of the New World, Eiriksson's right to this title received the stamp of official approval in the USA when in 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson, backed by a unanimous Congress, proclaimed October 9th "Leif Ericson Day" in commemoration of the first arrival of a European on North American soil. "
Quote from http://www.mnc.net/norway/ericson.htm
Actually, Bush says this was approved in 1964, I didn't notice that until now. I guess they just highlight it every year. Still, the quote about suitable activities is a Bush line.
On my way to work I pass this street sign every day:
LEIV EIRIKSON STREET
RE EH's story at the castle:
I wonder what about living in America for a few generation made all the Europeans who moved here so stupid?
PP: It's in their genes! ;)
I would be careful to judge a nation based on one tourist. Just ask a Dane what he thinks of Swedes based on the tourists in Copenhagen. "Drunk pigs" would probably be one of the more positive comments.
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