# Norwegian: Ascension Day Greeting



## Grefsen

Tomorrow is Ascension Day, which as I understand it is normally a National Holiday in Norway.  However,  tomorrow also happens to be the 17th of May (syttende mai). which is the day that Norway celebrates the anniversary of the signing of their constitution each year.  

First of all I'd like to know what some of the typical greetings are that Norwegians use on Ascension Day.  Could it be something like 'Gratulerer med himmelfartsdagen' or something else similar to this?

I'm also curious to know if Ascension Day will be largely ignored tomorrow in Norway because the 17th of May (syttende mai) is such an important Norwegian holiday?


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## Lemminkäinen

Grefsen said:


> First of all I'd like to know what some of the typical greetings are that Norwegians use on Ascension Day.  Could it be something like 'Gratulerer med himmelfartsdagen' or something else similar to this?



There aren't really any greetings for this. If you'd say anything, it would be something like *Ha en fin himmelfartsdag*, but even that sounds weird to me, as it's mostly viewed as another day off school/work.



> I'm also curious to know if Ascension Day will be largely ignored tomorrow in Norway because the 17th of May (syttende mai) is such an important Norwegian holiday?



Yes, I would say so, with the exception of the more devout Christians.


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## Grefsen

Lemminkäinen said:


> There aren't really any greetings for this. If you'd say anything, it would be something like *Ha en fin himmelfartsdag*, but even that sounds weird to me, as it's mostly viewed as another day off school/work.



'Tusen takk for ditt raske svar!'  

Since 'himmelfartsdagen' is 40 days after Easter, that means the holiday is always on a Thursday.  Do most Norwegians typically take the Friday after as a vacation day as well?  And if so, then would it be common to just say 'har en god helg' (have a nice weekend) as a 'himmelfartsdag' greeting?


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## Grefsen

Lemminkäinen said:


> Yes, I would say so, with the exception of the more devout Christians.



So do Christians typically go to a church service on 'himmelfartsdagen?'  From my experience being in Oslo on 'syttende mai' twice, I would think it might be extremely difficult to squeeze in anything else above and beyond just the 'syttende mai' festivities.


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## Lemminkäinen

Grefsen said:


> 'Tusen takk for ditt raske svar!'
> 
> Since 'himmelfartsdagen' is 40 days after Easter, that means the holiday is always on a Thursday.  Do most Norwegians typically take the Friday after as a vacation day as well?  And if so, then would it be common to just say 'har en god helg' (have a nice weekend) as a 'himmelfartsdag' greeting?



I know that's the practice in most schools, and I would guess a lot of work places are like that too, yes. And yeah, I could imagine that being suitable (though it would be *ha*, imperative  ).



Grefsen said:


> So do Christians typically go to a church service on 'himmelfartsdagen?'  From my experience being in Oslo on 'syttende mai' twice, I would think it might be extremely difficult to squeeze in anything else above and beyond just the 'syttende mai' festivities.



I don't know, sorry.


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## Grefsen

Lemminkäinen said:


> And yeah, I could imagine that being suitable (though it would be *ha*, imperative  ).



'Uff!'  I've been using 'har en god helg' for at least the past 10 years or so and none of my Norwegian friends have ever bothered to correct me.


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## Grefsen

Since 'himmelfartsdagen' and 'syttende mai' happen to fall on the same day this year, do Norwegians end up losing one of their holidays this year?


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## Lemminkäinen

Grefsen said:


> Since 'himmelfartsdagen' and 'syttende mai' happen to fall on the same day this year, do Norwegians end up losing one of their holidays this year?



Yes and no. It's the same thing when it falls on a Sunday, but there is a set number of holidays people have the right to, so when people have the day off on Friday for instance, it works out after all.


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## Grefsen

Lemminkäinen said:


> Yes and no. It's the same thing when it falls on a Sunday, but there is a set number of holidays people have the right to, so when people have the day off on Friday for instance, it works out after all.



 Yes, of course 'syttende mai' can also fall on a Sunday as well and I would imagine that for many Norwegians this would be a good excuse for taking a four day weekend.  

Personally i've always thought that the 18th of May should also be a National Holiday in Norway as well.  After a full day of celebrating I can't imagine that very many Norwegians will be very productive at work or school the next day.


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## Grefsen

Lemminkäinen said:


> There aren't really any greetings for this. If you'd say anything, it would be something like *Ha en fin himmelfartsdag*, but even that sounds weird to me, as it's mostly viewed as another day off school/work.




During the 'syttende mai' festivities yesterday I asked several Norwegians about  possible greetings for  *himmelfartsdag *and they all agreed with you that "it's mostly viewed as another day off school/work."  

I hope everyone in Norway who posts in this forum had a wonderful celebration of 'syttende mai' yesterday.   Hopefully you aren't too exhausted or too hung-over today and perhaps we will even see some of you posting here again soon.


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