Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.08.2010, Page 4

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4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 1 August 2010
Icelandic Celebration. The Celebration. The Big Party. The Family Get Together.
Dinga Dinga.
It has many names. It’s
been around for a long time.
It started in 1874 in Milwau-
kee. Six years later, in 1890,
the first Icelandic festival was
held in Manitoba. The festivals
started in Winnipeg and kept
being held there until 1931.
Since 1932 they’ve been held
in Gimli.
I knew they’d been in Gim-
li for a long time because I can
remember them from when
I was very small. I remem-
ber my mother helping in the
room at the back of the pavil-
ion where coffee and Icelandic
food was served. This room
with its benches was a magi-
cal place for it was filled with
vínarterta and pönnukökur and
little boys with rumbling stom-
achs could get a bit of this and
a bit of that. If they were really
lucky, they might get a piece of
brown bread with rúllupylsa.
However, it must have been a
one-time thing because it was
usually the Minerva ladies who
catered.
There were races and, if
you ran fast enough and didn’t
trip and fall, you could win a
prize. It wasn’t much but ice
cream was a nickel, soft drinks
were a nickel. Later, when I
was older, there were hotdogs
with onions and mustard and
ketchup. It paid to run fast.
There were lots of adults
wearing hats. They were all
dressed up. Many of the older
men had beards. There was a lot
of handshaking. The fjallkona
was escorted into the park by
men in white pants and took her
place on her throne. She was
impressive in her queen-like
clothes. There were speeches.
They were too long and they
were in Icelandic. Sometimes
the speeches went on for thir-
teen hours and fifteen minutes.
At least that was the way it felt
to a little boy. It was more fun
to play tag among the towering
spruce trees.
It was also fun to be at
home with the front door wide-
open as relatives and friends
poured in and out. People came
for their once a year trip to
Gimli. There was a table full
of food. There was beer under
the kitchen table in a washtub
of ice. There were soft drinks.
Endless amounts of coffee. And
talk. People came in the door
already talking. They talked so
much their jaws fell off.
The Celebration was only
one day. At night, there was a
dance. Everyone came. Whole
families. Adults doing the
waltz or the polka and kids
learning to dance around the
edges of the floor where they
wouldn’t get tripped over. The
alleyway around the dance
floor was jammed. Getting
through the logjam of people
took time. People were sitting
on long, wooden benches. A
lot of people had come by train
and a train was waiting for
them at the crossroads to take
them back to the city.
At night, relatives slept on
the floor and sometimes us kids
got to sleep outside in tents.
It was a celebration of be-
ing Icelandic but what mat-
tered was visiting. What
mattered were people. What
mattered were those connec-
tions renewed with family and
friends. Icelandic visitors were
rare and exotic. This reunion
was of the survivors and the
descendents of the survivors of
the emigration. Deaths on the
trip and in the first years were
large. The costs of the emigra-
tion could be counted in the
graveyards at Gimli, Riverton,
Lundar, Hnausa, Arnes, Hecla.
It was not just Kinmount that
harboured tragedy.
The Icelandic Celebration
was a time to check to see if we
were still alive. People would
often greet each other with the
words, “So, you’re still alive.”
Survival was something worth
celebrating.
Íslendingadagurinn is here
EDITORIAL
W.D. Valgardson
Editor
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