Nothing like a city parade to get up the adrenaline and bring on the schmaltz. It was excitement, joy, and remembrances on this last Sunday for the Norwegian Americans, but also for the whole city.
The Norwegian Day Parade kicked off at 1:30 pm on 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, zagged over to 5th Avenue, past the Palestinian demonstration, and zigged right onto 67th Street on the border of Leif Erikson Park and the community of Sunset Park.
We were surprised by how long the parade was and how many onlookers gawked and cheered. Even so, it is not the biggest parade, but its historical background spans the whole history of New York City. Norway lost more of its population to emigration, mainly to America coming through New York City, proportionally than any other country except Ireland.
People watching
Nobody has the wit or skill to tell about the journey of the Norwegians in our city. One legend, contained in the Vatican Archives, is that Leif Erikson or his followers even sailed by Long Island and established a small settlement. Probably, this was made up by a priest to exaggerate his work of evangelization, though only God knows. What we do know is pretty fantastic itself.
Leif Erikson Park in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn remembers the Viking adventurer but not the primary reason that he ended up in America one day around 1000 AD. You may be surprised to find out that he actually was a Viking Christian missionary blown off course from his mission field of Greenland.
On assignment from the King of Norway, off went Erikson to Greenland with a couple of monks to convince his father Erik the Red of the gospel of Jesus. He told the king, are you sure you want me to do this? Erik the Red was known to settle disagreements with a Viking ax.
However, the wind blew the ship the wrong way back past Greenland and onto a relatively unknown land. Leif and his crew ended up ashore in a land with plentiful forests and grapes. Erickson named the land, “Vinland,” a pleasant name that recalled how his father bestowed “Greenland” upon a wintery land as an enticement for new settlers. This story had the earmarks of legend until we started to fill in the archaeology behind it.
In 1961, some archaeologists found the prehistoric ruins of a Viking village in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, it is thought that this is likely the evidence of Leif’s presence. If that is so, then undoubtedly during that summer and winter, the first Christian worship services were held in America around 1021 AD, based on recent radio-carbon studies of the ruins. The building there has certain features that became typical of Norse chapels.
The next spring, Leif and his crew returned safely to Greenland with a shipload of lumber and grapes. He shared Christianity with his father Eric the Red — who rebuffed him.
However, Leif’s mother became a believer and built the first church in America, of which Greenland is geographically part.
She called it Thjoohild’s Church.
Churches & Faith-based Organizations
The Norwegians were also here for the beginning of our city in the settlement of New Amsterdam. There Annetje Bogardus was the bright shining partner of the heroic pastor Everardus Bogardus. Their marriage was so typical of what would become the American melting pot. She was Norwegian and Everardus was Dutch, but an orphan. They were outliers of respectable society. Further, they made themselves even more set apart by welcoming the Africans into the church and their family.
Organizations
Police & Fire
Bands & Schools
Skip forward to the 19th Century and we find that the Norwegian immigration crested with hundreds of thousands of new settlers here and in the Midwest. Many of them expressed their disgust with slavery, and almost all were enthusiastic supporters of the war of liberation of the Old South.
Their city redoubt became Brooklyn, from Red Hook through Sunset Park to Bay Ridge. One of the city’s greatest female heroines was the Norwegian Deaconess Elizabeth Fedde, who founded Lutheran Hospital and the ambulance service for south Brooklyn. She was a true Viking lady who struck fear into the hearts of men who wouldn’t support her compassionate works for the poor.
The Norwegian Americans moved outward to the suburbs (see our map), but they came to consider their roots as Brooklyn. Many come back to celebrate the Norwegian Day Parade. The actual holiday is Norwegian Constitution Day (established in 1814) on Tuesday, May 17th, but the parade was held on Sunday so that more people can participate.
Norway Day Street Fair
Tuesday, May 17, 1:00-6:00
Outside the Norwegian Seamen’s Church, 317 East 52nd St. (First-Second Aves.), Manhattan. Free admission
www.SjomannsKirken.no/kirke/new-york/kalender/17-mai-i-new-york
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