Lögberg-Heimskringla - 04.02.1994, Blaðsíða 3

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 4. febrúar 1994 • 3
Letter to the Editor
A Time for Change
Let us strengthen our link with
accurate information on Iceland’s culture.
Fun is Fun but Fishing is Serious
by Harold Johnson
Oak Harbour, Washington
We live in a rapidly changing
world which is reason for
us to make alterations.
I am writing to all members of the
Icelandic family to start a cultural
society. There is a need for this to
maintain a link with future descen-
dants. It is important to produce
accurate information on Iceland’s
culture for future generations.
I believe that a sustained effort
should be made to produce videos
pertaining to our past and present
culture. The subjects could be
national costumes, items from the
museums, people and origins, food,
art, dance, music, plays, sagas, fish-
ing and farming, etc..
A resource centre should be
established where up-to-date infor-
mation on available speakers and
entertainers is kept. Also materials
assembled, like exhibits, movies,
printed materials, which can be
loaned or donated. Many fine
exhibits and printed materials are
produced and used only once, which
is a shame. I know from experience
that it is difficult to get materials for
display at Nordic functions. The
society should give support where
they can, in these cases.
I believe that if this is properly
structured, that this can be financed
by individual dues, donations and
sales. All revenues should be used to
accomplish cultural awareness.
The younger generation is more
apt to pop in a video and watch
materials on their heritage, than read
about it. This is a fact of life, which
we have to utilise. Videos on Iceland
and its people can be shared with
others through our libraries.
The Icelandic National League is
meeting in July in Iceland and maybe
this can be discussed and acted
upon.
As a minority group we have a lot
to be proud of as Icelanders. In the
traditional way, let’s hear some dis-
cussion on this idea.
By Einar Einarson
We humans are repetitious in
our life style, we do the same
things according to the clock,
the day of the week, the day of the
month and the month of the year.
Fishermen of the commerciai type,
exercise daily, weekly, monthly, and
yearly schedules.
At this time of the year, the annual
New Year’ Eve bash and dance was
over including headaches and other
effects of over indulgence. Discretion
was a word in the dictionary which we
had never read. The New Year’s event
was strictly a dance, there was nothing
cultural about it just a pure and simple
dance, no concert, speeches or other
cultural nonsense, just a bang up fol-
lowed by a hangover the following day.
These were as regular as preparing nets
in waiting for the ice to form on the
lake, so we could set our nets. Then
wait for Christmas and booze up pri-
vately with friends in the various fish-
ermen’s shacks in a friendly sort of
way. It was the Big New Year’s Dance
that came next on the calendar, a rip
snorting dance that lasted through the
night.
From the early part of the evening
until midnight everything went along at
an orderly and joyful pace. Many old
time dances were included. Such as the
ubiquitous Square Dance, interspersed
with, Waltzes, Fox Trots, Two Step,
Schottische, and variations of the Jazz
age which reigned during the Twenties.
These blowups or blowouts of their
great grandparents in their youth may
come as a surprise to our young people
as they view the seniors of today, in
their innocent and fragile existence.
They were part of the cyclical events
which livened up an otherwise dull
and drab existence of drudgery and
toil. A highlight event was the annual
Icelandic National League Convention.
The sessions lasted throughout a week
with daytime meetings to expound on
and duly amend motions until exhaust-
ed. The only way to stop them from
blocking the meeting and calling a halt
to the whole proceedings was to shelve
the most controversial ones, pass oth-
ers or simply defeat them. This was
great stuff for the middle aged or
olderjfor the younger generation, they
showed no interest and disappeared
during the day mainly to the Leland
Hotel Beer Parlour. Others were happy
with a movie particularly if it was an
emotional love story with an hon-
ourable ending.
When all this excitement was over
and the fishing season coming to an
end, the exciting concerts and dances
in the local hall came to a gradual end.
The intervention of Lent arrived when
some of the Catholic Mothers forbade
their daughters to attend dances and
thereby forestalled any marital
thoughts they might of been develop-
ing.
The next Annual Bang-up was the
Oak Point Picnic, which included field
sports, for all ages, an outdoor coffee
stand, slow car race, horse racing, and
athletic competition of all sorts.
Rural life was not all drudgery there
were entertaining fun moments as
well.
FAMILYi
COUNSELLORS
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According to latest figures from
the Statistical Bureau of Iceland,
keeper of the Holy Grail that is
the nation’s facts and figures,
Hafnarfjörður, southernmost town in
the Reykjavík conurbation, has a popu-
Gary Filmon
Premier
Bonnie Mítchelson
Minister of Family
Services
Harold Gilleshammer
Minister of Culture,
Heritage & Citizenship
Minister responsible for
Multiculturalism
Qreetings to atf tManitobans
We are delighted to extend our best wishes to all
Manitobans as we begin 1994, the International
Year of the Family.
Our government is proud to support this global
event and its tribute to families of every nation.
We encourage Manitobans of all origins to join in
activities recognizing the importance of the family
in today's society.
There are many great things in Manitoba to cele-
brate. We believe the International Year of the
Family is one observance that Manitobans of all
origins can share and enjoy with pride.
We hope it will be a year of peace, prosperity and
harmony for families around the world.
During the International Year of the Family, it is
appropriate that we reflect on the role of the family
in all aspects of our communities.
Manitoba
lation of 16,107 souls earthly souls, who
are famed throughout Iceland for their
highly individualistic sense of humour.
However, statisticians, demogra-
phers and cartographers may well have
to think again, following the publica-
tion of Hafnarfjörður — Hidden
Worlds, a map by local seer and medi-
um Erla Stefánsdóttir portraying the
town as home to one of the richest elf
and spirit populations in all Iceland,
with more than 20 types of dwarves,
four species of gnomes and “all manner
of elfin beings.”
Richly illustrated in the author’s dis-
tinctive, if at times whimsical, hand, the
map clearly pinpoints and describes the
haunts of the elves, hidden people,
gnomes, lovelings, lightfairies, dwarves,
angels and mountain spirits with whom
the human population share their town,
most without realizing it.
Not only prolific in number, the hid-
den folk are also, according to
Stefánsdóttir, multilingual, some speak-
ing English, German and Danish as
well as Icelandic, further evidence of
the town’s rich mercantile past.
Further information on the map, also
available as a poster and — for those of
a more sceptical tum of mind — accom-
panied by an official message from the
town’s mayor, Ingvar Viktorsson, can
be obtained from the Hafnarfjörður
Tourist Information Office, Vesturgata
8, 220 Hafnarfjörður, tel. 354-1-650661,
fax 354-1-654785; the map is available
in Icelandic or English.