Food & Drinks

It’s Syttende Mai. Have Some Aquavit to Celebrate Norway’s Big Day

May 17 is the Scandinavian country’s most festive holiday. Here’s what to drink and where to party accordingly.

Celebrating Norway’s Constitution Day in Bergen, Norway, where many adults and children don traditional dress and wave flags at the passing procession, on May 17, 2017. — Celebrating Norway’s Constitution Day in Bergen, Norway, where many adults and children don traditional dress and wave flags at the passing procession, on May 17, 2017.
Photographer: MaxOzerov/iStock Editorial

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By Jason Tesauro

May 17, 2018 at 6:49 PM UTC

Corrected

May 17, 2018 at 10:03 PM UTC

It’s pronounced SET-nuh MY. “And it’s even more important to Norwegians than the Fourth of July is for Americans, if that’s possible,” says Morten Sohlberg, owner of Smorgas Restaurant Group in New York, which includes Smorgas Chef on Park Avenue at Scandinavia House and Blenheim, his Michelin-rated new-Nordic restaurant in the West Village.

Syttende Mai means 17th of May in Norwegian, and it stands for the historic day in 1814 when some Norwegians signed the Kongeriket Norges Grunnlov, making Norway’s constitution the second-oldest written constitution in the world. “I was born and raised in Norway,” says Sohlberg, “and I have Swedes in my kitchen, but this is not shared across the borders in Finland, Sweden, Iceland, or Denmark,” four other nations of greater Scandinavia.