Another busy day in Norway! Though the majority of the group slept well on their ice beds, a few weren’t feeling so rested this morning. This was a very unique experience! Not many can say they’ve slept in an igloo on a snow bad covered in reindeer pelts! As people trickled out of their rooms and into the lodge, some hit up the sauna right way, others went straight to breakfast. At breakfast there was a variety of sliced meats for us to try including moose and reindeer. One fun fact about our hotel is that all of the running water came straight from the mountains surrounding us!
We also had the chance to meet a few of Rudolph’s friends! A couple Sami men brought three reindeer to meet our crew before we departed the hotel for the Alta Museum. (Did you know that there are more reindeer in Alta than there are people?)
One of the reindeer we met before leaving the ice hotel
At the museum we got to learn more about the Sami and their culture. The Sami are indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia with most of their population found in Finnmark, the northernmost Norwegian county where Alta is located. The Sami have a long history of being marginalized within these countries but have recently been given greater control of the areas they live in. They have parliaments in the three countries of Norway, Sweden, and Finland with the king of Norway opening their parliamentary session each year.
During this presentation we also learned about the origin of reindeer being associated with Santa during the Christmas season. During a food shortage in Alaska, the United States government paid to transport 500 reindeer and their Sami herders to Alaska as a solution. The herders and reindeer were ferried to New York, took a train to Seattle, and finally were ferried to Alaska. Unfortunately a little over 100 of the reindeer survived, but they were able to reproduce until they built up a population in the thousands that now inhabits Alaska. Later, a department store owner first connected Santa with the reindeer by depicting Santa as riding in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. This eventually spread throughout the country until it became a widespread Christmas tradition.
We made our way to our new hotel, which is located right in the city of Alta, to get settled in and eat some lunch. The meal consisted of a salad bar, various cheeses and crackers, chicken with a yellow curry sauce, three variations of salmon, and bread. Later they brought out a few desserts, one of them being very familiar to us Minnesotans: apple crisp!
When we were done with lunch a lot of the students took our hour break as an opportunity to sneak in a quick nap. Then we took a short walk over to the Northern Lights Cathedral. Alta was given the name “City of the Northern Lights” on January 1st, 2000. This was also the day the first stone was laid for the cathedral. We learned that the whole city of Alta was burned down in 1944 and only a small cathedral on the edge of the city survived. When the city was built back up in the 70’s after the war, talk of a new cathedral was thrown around but they did not act on this until the year 2000. The cathedral was opened up to the public in 2014, though it was not completely finished until 2015. They are now talking about adding a Northern Lights experience in the basement of the buildings around the administrative offices. The idea is to give tourists a small picture of what the Lights look like, in case they are there on a cloudy night. The floors of the cathedral are made of oak, which is a big deal here since they don’t have oak trees anywhere near here. The outside of the cathedral has about 40,000 reflective panels that reflect whatever weather is present in the sky. There are also lights on the top of some of the buildings surrounding the cathedral so they can light it up purple, blue, or whatever color they choose! The shape of the building is very unique and is modeled after the Northern Lights. The spiral shape you notice right away represents the swirls one can see in the Lights, and the vertical panels symbolize the lines and waves in the Lights. Inside the cathedral is a very modern statue of the crucifixion. Instead of showing Jesus with a slumped head, the statue shows Him with His head raised toward the sky, the artist did this because he views the salvation the accompanies the crucifixion as something to be celebrated. There is also a skylight right above the statue, so when the sun does choose to show itself, it illuminates the face of Jesus as he looks up. Another cool aspect of the cathedral was the baptismal font, which had a light shining up through the water to give the water a golden look as it drips from a baby’s head.
In class tonight we learned a little bit about the culture of Norway and played some Norwegian trivia. Then we got to learn about the history of skiing in Norway, which started around 1850.
The inside of the Northern Lights Cathedral
Sculpture we saw inside the Northern Lights Cathedral
The inside of the Northern Lights Cathedral. After class we were able to rent out the local bowling alley and played a couple rounds! It was a great time to socialize with each other and incorporate some good clean competition.
Dr. Banks giving some bowling advice
-Emily Craig and Jack Schugel