Norway Day Festival

Mission Statement

The Norway Day Festival in San Francisco has three main purposes. Possibly the most important is to promote and maintain a close, mutually satisfactory relationship between Norway and the USA. This should apply in many areas, but especially in Culture and Industry. The thousands of Americans in Northern California, who have descended from Norwegian immigrants, look to the Festival as a way to become reconnected with their roots. The mental images passed to them by their ancestors, often pictured Norway as some kind of "Heaven". The music, language, foods, customs, etc., which they encounter at the Festival, remind them of the things that make them proud to be able to say that they have Norwegian blood in their veins. Even though their images of Norway may now be quite out-of-date, they are happy to cling to them and, if possible, pass them on to their descendants. Along with their emotional ties to "Old Norge," today's descendants are equally anxious to promote "Modern Norway." They are proud of Norway's advances in areas like Technology and Ecology, and of Norway's emerging prominence in World Diplomacy. Thus, a third purpose for the Festival is to call attention to all the good things that have been accomplished by and are now being offered by the "Norway of Today."