Faroe Islands 1998 - EUROPA, National Holidays

Date of Issue: 18 May 1998

On 29th July every year the Faroese celebrate their national festival. It is a thousand-year-old tradition, which is actually a combination of politics and Christianity, an expression of a Christian political culture in this archipelago in the North Atlantic.

The Faroese are the only Nordic people to choose Saint Olav's mass as a national holiday and not only for religious reasons, but also political ones. Olav the Holy was a Norwegian king, not a Faroese one, yet a Faroese saint. On the anniversary of his death at the battle of Stiklestad on 29th July 1030 the Faroese express the essence of their nationality.

The Faroese call their national festival Ólavsvøka, which is the Faroese form of the Latin 'vigilia sancti Olavi'. In Danish this annual festival is called Olai-festen. Olav the saint king has always had a central place in Faroese religious and political tradition and culture.

On this day the Faroe Island's thousand-year-old parliament, Lagtinget, opens in the capital, Tórshavn. The members of Lagstinget, members of the Faroese Home Rule, the bishop and all the clergymen of the country and the highest officials walk in procession from the parliament building, Lagtingshuset, to the cathedral, and, after a special Olai service, back to Lagtingshuset, where the Speaker, the lagmand, holds the opening speech.

In olden days Lagtinget was both a legislative institution and a court of law with 36 and later 48 members. The lagmand was the chairman and the chief judge. The records of Lagtinget, in which the decisions and judgments of the court were written down, have been preserved since 1615 and are kept in the national archives in Tórshavn.

In former times the court was held on the flat rock in Tinganes. It was necessary for the lagmand to keep track of the time, because it was written in the old laws that the court had to be convened when the sun was in the east and that the court had to be in session until three o'clock. On the rock you can still see the sun dials which were carved into it.

The worsening of the climate in the 16th century made it necessary to hold the court indoors. A national court house in Tinganes, Tinghuset, is mentioned in the old protocols of Lagtinget. In 1773 the lower part of Tinganes burned down, and with it the court house. Later a new court house was built closer to the present town.

But in 1816 the old Faroese Lagting was abolished by royal decree and with it also the post of lagmand. After that there was no Faroese authority on the Faroe Islands. The country was placed under direct Danish rule.

When the Faroe Islands' Lagting was re-established in 1852 it was in a completely different form. It was to be an advisory body to the Danish authorities for the administration of the Faroe Islands. It was in this connection that the present Lagtingshus was built in 1856, then outside the town. With the Home Rule Act of 1948 Lagtinget received greater authority.

There have always been ceremonies in connection with the assembly of Lagtinget on Olai day. It is known from ancient sources that may people came to Tórshavn to witness the event. That was the beginning of Ólavsvøka as a national festival. The first church was built in Tórshavn in 1609. In 1733 the dean, Lucas Debes, wrote that every court day began with a service in Tórshavn church.

Today the Lagting procession is an integral part of the Olai festivities. It reflects the old connection between the court and church.

And the many people who watch the procession of Lagting members, clergy and officials from Lagtingshuset to the cathedral and back again expect to see this event as a natural part of the national festivity.