Sami is ethnic-cultural people, that lived in Scandinavia since the dawn of time. Today they mostly live in the munipial named Finnmark in Norway, but also lots lives in Oslo also. The Sami people also use northern Sweden, Finland and Russia. They have their own culture, own language, own political system and also their own flag. For nerds that loves flags, the sami flan is amon the most beautiful flags ever made.
Sami people celebrating 6th of February since 1917
The first Sámi national ethnic day was held on 6th of February 1917 in Trondheim, Norway. On this day, the Norwegian and Swedish government sat together so that they could work and find solutions together. It means that this years event is 100 Years old and Distrita congratulates the Sámi people for this day.
Helsinki gave Celebration on February 6th a Start
At the 15th Sámi Conference in Helsinki, a resolution was passed that Sámi National Day should be celebrated on February 6 to commemorate the 1st Sámi congress in 1917. Sami National Day is for all Sámi, regardless of where they live and on that day the Sámi flag should be flown and the Sami national anthem is sung in the local Sámi language. The first time Sami National Day was celebrated was in 1993, when the International Year of Indigenous People was proclaimed open in Jokkmokk, Sweden by the United Nations.
Since then, celebrating the day has become increasingly popular. In Norway it is compulsory for municipal administrative buildings to fly the Norwegian flag, and optionally also the Sami flag, on February 6. Particularly notable is the celebration in Norway’s capital Oslo, where the bells in the highest tower of Oslo City Hall play the Sami national anthem as the flags go up. Some larger places have taken to arranging festivities also in the week around the Sami National Day.
Through pure synchronicity, this date also happened to be when representatives of the Sámi of the Kola Peninsula used to gather annually, meeting with Russian bureaucrats to debate and decide on issues of relevance to them. This organ, called the Koladak Sobbar, has been dubbed the ‘first Sámi Parliament’ by the researcher Johan Albert Kalstad. This did not influence the choice of the date as the Sámi People’s Day, since the people present did not know about it – the Koladak Sobbar only existed during the late 19th century, and was only ‘rediscovered’ by Kalstad in the 3rd millennium.
Distrita wishes all Sámi people a happy National day today. May the force be with you!
Source
Wikipedia
