If your not Norwegian and you don’t have any relations to Norway, you might be asking yourself – What is russ? Well, here in Norway you usually have 13 years of school. By the time most people are done, we’re about 18/19 years old. In Norway you can drink (except for hard liquor) when you’re 18. I guess somehow from this combination there has formed a tradition for graduating students all over Norway. It’s called the “Russetid” which is a period from the middle of April to the 17th of May (Norways national day) where all the russ go crazy and act stupid. This might not make any sense, right? Well, the point of it is for these graduating students to have a last chance at acting childish and stupid, getting it all out before they go out into the real world to be adults. Now some might think this makes sense, some might not – however it’s been a Norwegian tradition since the 1700s (in a very different way than now).
The russ wear red pants (unless they go to a different type of school, then there can be black/blue/green etc.), and they have red hats. They often form groups for the “Russetid” and buy a van together, which they pimp up and spend most of their time in. They go to BIG parties with russ from all over the country and simply have a fun time before things get serious.
The past three days the russ have had a revy (came up as revue in the dictonary), sort of a show with skits, music and dance to earn money for a good cause. Last night I met three wonderful girls there to see their last performance.
Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the show…
The point of this entire revy is to be funny and tons of people usually come to see the show. There was kids, teens, grown ups and elderly – and everyone laughed a lot!
In about a month then, the russ will start and I bet they’ll have fun! Next year it’s my turn, and I can imagine I’ll tell you a whole lot more then!
-S.
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