Russefeiring


The russefeiring is a traditional celebration for Norwegian high school students in their final spring semester. Students that take part in the celebrations are known as russ. Students in high school normally prepare for this celebration from the start of the year. Russ celebrations normally happen before the final term exam for the high school students before they are off to university or college.
Russ celebrate all over Norway, but the traditions differ between regions and counties. Some purchase large buses to drive to events and to party in, while others may simply buy a van or a car. Not all russ, particularly in the big cities, have buses at all. The russefeiring traditionally starts around 20 April and ends on 17 May, the Norwegian Constitution day. Participants wear coloured overalls. Some form groups that name a bus, car or van.
Some celebrate almost continually during this period, and drunkenness and public disturbances are regularly linked to the celebration, creating yearly public debates on how to prevent the most negative outcomes of the russ tradition.
The word russ stems from the Latin word, depositúrus .

History

The modern Norwegian russefeiring has roots to the mid-1800s. In 1905, the red russ caps were introduced to graduation celebrations as a sign of the imminent acceptance into the system of higher education. The caps were initially only used by boys, and were inspired by German students, who in 1904 wore red caps when they visited Norway. In 1916, blue caps were introduced at the Oslo Commerce School, a prestigious high school specializing in economics, in order to separate them from the common graduates. Later, celebrations were gradually extended, similarly coloured overalls were added, and the caps were saved for the final day of celebrations.
As time passed, students graduating from vocational courses were allowed to participate in the celebrations, and additional overall and cap colours were gradually introduced by some of the vocational graduates. The celebrations then became a general celebration of the end of upper secondary school.
In Norway, most are 18 or 19 by the time of therussefeiring. The age of 18 is both the age limit for buying alcohol and acquiring a driver's license. Therefore, the growing festivities also led to increased alcohol consumption, and in the 1970s the tradition of buying old cars, vans, buses, and even lorries and painting them in the same colours as the overalls became common.
These cars would be extensively decorated, and serve as mobile homes and party venues for the russ during the russefeiring. They would be outfitted with tables, chairs, bunk beds, sound and lighting systems, and melodic horns. These vehicles were named russebiler. Over the 1980s it became fairly common to rip the cargo beds off lorries and build log cabins on the frames instead. However, due to safety issues this practice was banned during the early 1990s. Also regulations were introduced that required every russ vehicle to have a designated non-russ driver. This, together with the no-tolerance policy on alcohol consumption by drivers introduced in the late 1990s, greatly reduced the number of accidents involving russ vehicles.
Russ cars and buses would gather for impromptu partying on school grounds, parking lots, beaches and other suitable places. Sometimes up to several hundreds of cars and buses would gather in one place. Eventually, these events became organized by commercial interests, who then also took over responsibility for the security of the participants. Still russ gather their vehicles for impromptu partying, but in smaller numbers.
By the early 2000s authorities were once again worried about impact of the partying and alcohol consumption during the russefeiring. In an attempt to reduce the extent of the celebrations, some of the final exams in public schools were moved to early May. Traditionally, these had all been taking place in late May and early June. The idea was that forcing the pupils to prepare for exams instead of partying would reduce the extent of the problem. This had no noticeable effect, however, and resistance from pupils' organizations moved the exams back, with the argument that the only effect was to have pupils sacrifice grades for partying.

Duration

The festivities start anytime between 11 April and 1 May. On this date, russ are allowed to put on their overalls, board their vehicles, and officially become russ. From then on celebrations continue almost non-stop until 17 May. On this day the russ are awarded their caps, and participate in the traditional 17 May parades. In the meantime, there are a number of smaller and bigger events for russ to participate in. The dates of the biggest parties are usually the 1st where the students are 'christened' with personalized russ names which are written on their caps, and 16 May, which is the second biggest party night, as these two dates are followed by national holidays.

Function

Russefeiring is a longstanding tradition and a major cultural phenomenon in Norway. Apart from being a celebration of the imminent end of 12 or 13 years of schooling, it has also become a rite of passage into adulthood, and a farewell to classmates from the videregående skole who will now go their separate ways in search for jobs or higher education. It is therefore an important period in the lives of most Norwegian adolescents.
In the period, there are several russetreff 'russ meetings'. At these events, tens of thousands of russ meet in an allocated area for one or more days. There are concerts, bus competitions in several circles, and the sale of beer and food.
While russefeiring is optional, there are few pupils who do not participate in any way, although the extent of involvement varies individually. However, there are pupils who, due to personal or religious reasons, do not consume alcohol, and therefore object to the nature of many of the celebrations, which contribute to its image as the treukersfylla 'the three-week binge'. These pupils do not partake in common festivities to the same degree that other russ do and sometimes create their own events such as kristenruss 'Christian russ', often shortened to kruss.

Overall colors

There are several different types of russ, differing in the colour of the caps and traditional uniforms most students wear during the entire russ period. The uniform's colour usually reflects the student's course of study. However, in some regions such as Stavanger, the colour is determined by the school. Typically in these areas, if the headmaster of the school was a blue russ, the students will also be blue regardless of what they are studying.
;Red
;Blue
;Black
;Green
;White
;Miscellaneous

The board

It is common to appoint a russ president, a party coordinator, a newspaper editor, journalists, a contraceptive supervisor, and other amusing titles.
The russ president is responsible for the russ celebration and giving an interview to a local newspaper as well as holding a speech on Constitution Day. The party coordinator organizes parties with different themes. The newspaper editor and the journalists make a russ newspaper. The contraceptive supervisor gets some thousand condoms from the Red Cross to pass out to the russ.

"Knots and happenings"

Ståkuka translates roughly to 'the noisy week', but there is a play on words involved as ståkuk literally means 'erect penis'. Ståkuka is the last week in April, involving different dress themes. There is a different theme each day; typical themes are:
  • Gender-change day
  • Army day
  • Pajama day
  • Hero day
  • Emo day
  • Business day

    Knots

The russ knots on the string of the russ caps are a wide variety of rewards signaling that the student has fulfilled a certain accomplishment during the russ period. They can be simple knots or tokens attached to the string. Lists of assignments and associated knots are publicized each year by russ committees at schools and communities. The knot often consists of an item representing the accomplishment. For instance, passing through the back seat of a car stopping on a red light, earns them a piece of wrapping from the sweet. The russ knot list was first introduced in the 1940s.
The knot rules are sometimes criticized because they can involve illegal acts, such as public nudity or public sexual intercourse, outright assault and possibly self-harming actions such as consuming large amounts of alcohol in a short span of time. Other more benign tasks exist, such as putting a for sale sign on a police car, or spending the night at a teacher's house and making him/her breakfast in the morning, all without being noticed. Counting both national and local lists, there can be hundreds of different tasks that can be performed to gain knots, with huge varieties between districts and individual schools. Due to criticism in media, many of the russ knots are removed and replaced by other knots every year to decrease their impact on the students. Some of the previous knots have been physically dangerous, such as drinking 24 bottles of beer within 24 hours, or placing half a box of snus under one's lip for a certain period of time. This can lead to alcohol poisoning and severe brain damage.
A few russ knot examples:
  • Spending a night in a tree
  • Eating a Big Mac hamburger in two bites
  • Drinking a bottle of wine in 20 minutes
  • Crawling through a supermarket while barking and biting customers' legs
  • Spending a school day crawling on hands and knees
  • Spending the entire russ period sober
  • Drinking 24 beers in 24 hours or 12 hours
  • Go for a swim before 1 May
  • Ask random people in a mall if they can lend one a condom
  • Stage a false break up with a random 16-year-old in public
  • Sit in a roundabout with a sign saying Vi drikker hvis dere tuter!, or a variation, En tut
  • Host an aerobic class at the local pub and get at least ten people to join.
It is common for every school to have about 100 knots. If a russ does 50 or 70 of them he or she can choose to do three extra embarrassing or hard knots to become an elite russ.
A few elite russ knot examples:
  • Tattoo russ and the year they were russ on their body.
  • Make out with 10 people in one night.
  • Give more than to charity.
  • Dye their hair in the colour they are russ.