17. júní

Today is our independence day we got our independence from Denmark 1944. The first settlers here were people from Norway seeking new land in the year of 874! We also have Irish blood because when the vikings went abroad they took people from Ireland with them back to Iceland to work for them. We were ruled both by Norway and Denmark during the period 874-1944 (mostly by Denmark). This day was chosen because Jón Sigurðsson a big leader to gain independence was born on this day.

We have several types of costumes, they are very expensive even though you would sew one for yourself, the fabrics and decoration needed are so expensive, the one I would like is this, called peysuföt:


This is the most common and is called upphlutur:


Then we have this which was worn by the richest ladies in the country and is called skautbúningur:


And this is the newest only from ca 1870 and is called kyrtill:


I have to tell you about the event "Kvennahlaup" each year from 1990 on the saturday which is closest to the 17th. of June Icelandic women take part in a run for women only, they all dress in a T-shirt different color each year and choose their distance, 3km, 5km or 10km, they can walk, run or whatever they want to, to participate is the whole game, even women who are abroad gather together for their run

This one is in Gardabaer which is next to Reykjavík:


This one is in Italy:


And this one in Bulgaria:






And at last the fabrics that I bought last week, I could not resist it, I went to a shop just to look (not for fabric) and then I saw this, I didn´t know they sold fabric!




I did participate in the Pincushion swap which May Britt mentioned in her post, take a look at The country cellar to learn more about it.

Have a good day, Gudrún celebrating independence.