Skål!
By Mitch Berg
Today is Leif Erikson Day, an actual national holiday named after the real first European to reach North America, nearly 500 years before Columbus.
The date has nothing to do with Erikson’s birthday or the date he discovered Vinland – both of which are lost to history.
October 9 is, however, according to the Wikipedia article on the subject…:
…because the ship Restauration coming from Stavanger, Norway [from whence my mother’s maternal grandfather came about seventy years later], arrived in New York Harbor on October 9, 1825 at the start of the first organized immigration from Norway to the United States.
You’re welcome.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Ja, well, we both know the real reason for the date is to get a “yump” on Columbus day. And at the moment my Norwegian pride is at a fairly low ebb. But yeah, skål to you too.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
My relatives came from Stavanger, too. I THOUGHT you looked familiar.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Mine were kicked out of….damn, forgot. Somewhere inland.
October 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Mine came from Norfjiord, but we tend to be tolerant of you Solanders.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
My wife’s people are from Stavanger, too.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
What do you want, a Nobel Peace Prize?
October 9th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
My boss is reversing the trend by taking a three-year ex-pat assignment and moving from Minnesota to Stavanger.
October 9th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Søen where my Grandmother came from in 1904, at the end of that fjord of that same name (the big long one). She got in the family way in the wrong way, and got pushed out to live with relatives over here…ended up cleaning houses until one of her clients started teaching her English, pulling her out of a not-so-good home situation. I’m still looking for ways to repay that favor.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Happy Leif Erikson Day Mitch, Bill Haverberg, all!
I’m thinking more along the lines of celebrating Oktoberfest……