Lögberg-Heimskringla - 23.07.1964, Blaðsíða 17

ALÚÐAR ÁRNAÐARÓSKIR
til allra fslendinga í tilefni af
íslendingadeginum á Gimli
ARTHUR A.
ANDERSON
Rcprcsenting
ALL-WAYS TRAVEL BUREAU
315 Hargrave Street
PHONE 942-2535
RES: GL 2-5446
Winnipeg 2, Canada
Lögberg - Heimskringla
ALÚÐAR ÁRNAÐARÓSKIR
til allra íslendinga í tilefni af
íslendingadeginum á Gimli
ARTHUR A.
ANDERSON
Representing
ALL-WAYS TRAVEL BUREAU
315 Hargrave Street
PHONE 942-2535
RES: GL: 2-5446
Winnipeg 2, Canada
LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 23. JÚLt 1964
17
AT GIMLI, MANITOBA,
IT'S ÍSLENDINGADAGURINN
By Caroline
Canada, and Iceland will be
toasted in verse and prose on
August 3, in a gay tradition-
packed ceremony at Gimli, on
the shores of Lake Winnipeg,
Manitoba.
Although the ceremonies
take place in Canada, the
theme goes back more than a
thousand years, to Iceland,
and the throng participating
in the festival will be inter-
national.
They are celebrating Is-
lendingadagurinn.
‘Icelandic Day’, the literal
translation, is a big day in
the lives of some 50,000 North
Americans of Icelandic origin.
At the summer resort and
fishing village of Gimli, this
has been “The Day” for three
quarters of century.
Always a colorful festival,
this 75th anniversary, falling
on Canadian civic holiday,
August 3, promises to be one
to remember.
The prime minister of Ice-
land, Dr. Bjarni Benediktsson
and his wife, frú Sigríður
Björnsdóttir, will attend. The
prime minister will be featur-
ed speaker with greetings
from the old land.
According to custom, how-
ever, the first event on the
program will be the Maid of
the Mountains. A poetic im-
personation of Iceland, some-
times she may be a fourth
or fifth generation Canadian,
but in a courageous tussle
with the tongue of her fore-
bears, she will voice her
pride in the achievements of
Airview of Gimli. Betel In the foreground.
Gunnarsson
A part of large crowd at an Icel. Celebration in Gimli Park
“her children” in Canada and
challenge them to be loyal
sons and daughters of their
new country. She will wear
the high white headdress and
golden crown worn by Ice-
landic women on festive oc-
casions for centuries. Over
her shoulders will be the
traditional green mantle,
edged in white ermine, over
a gold-belted white kirtle.
She will lead a colorful parade
and place flowers on a monu-
ment to the pioneers.
The program is staged
against a painted backdrop
depicting the dramatic land-
scape of Thingvellir, the
scene of Iceland’s ancient
parliament. Children’s and
male voice choirs will sing
English, Icelandic and Scandi-
navian songs and band music
will echo through the mas-
sive trees of Gimli’s beautiful
natural park.
The “glíma,” an ancient
Icelandic form of wrestling,
will highlight a program of
sports and athletics.
A co-operative calendar
might have conceded to
history and let the second day
of August fall on a Monday
this year. On that date the
first Icelandic Day on this
continent was held in Mil-
waukee, Wisconsin, just 90
years ago, celebrating the
Millennial anniversary of the
Icelandic nation, and a major
constitutional victory in Ice-
land’s long struggle for inde-
pendence from Danish dom-
ination.
The 283 Icelandic settlers
who came to Winnipeg on the
Red River stern-wheeler “In-
ternational” on October 11,
1875, probably brought the
day with them. They con-
tinued on to their destination
60 miles north of Winnipeg
in open York boats towed by a
small steamer. The colony
they established was nost-
algically named New Iceland.
Its capital was called Gimli,
after the heaven of Norse
mythology. Smallpox scourg-
ed the settlement the follow-
ing year and by 1877 a third
of the settlers had died.
But conditions in Iceland
sent others to join them.
Forced out by volcanic
eruptions, scarcity of grass,
pack-ice in the fjords and
the rigors of Danish trade
monopoly, nearly 12,000 Ice-
landers immigrated to Can-
ada between 1870 and 1890.
New Iceland became a mother
settlement, supplying settlers
to other Icelandic com-
munities — Winnipeg, Sel-
kirk, North Dakota, the North-
west Territories, and along
the Pacific Coast, north and
south of the Canada-United
States border. But Manitoba
has long been the center of
Icelandic settlement, and
a Winnipeg amusement park
was the stage for Ice-
landic Day for more than
papers were published there
during the first few years,
and the first social groups
were music, literary and de-
bating societies.
On August 3, several gen-
erations after Gimli was
founded, North Americans of
Icelandic extraction will
gather to commemorate the
historic trek of their fore-
fathers and the struggle for
independence in another land.
Can. Government
Travel Bureau.
The beautiful beach at Gimli
three decades. Now Winni-
peg and Gimli unite to make
one day of it.
There is little concentration
of Icelandic Canadians in
communities now. But Gimli
remains a symbol of a way of
life that took root wherever
these pioneers settled. As
soon as they had built roofs
over their heads they began
building churches and
schools. The first language
taught was English. New Ice-
land operated for years as an
independent republic with its
own constitution. Two news-
Compliments of
HECLA
TRANSFER
Serving Hecla and
Gull Harbour
WINNIPEG TERMINAL
MANITOBA TRUCK
DEPOT
308 Fountain St.
Phone WH 3-7659
Hecla R2