The Norwegian Day Parade, the local event that celebrates Norwegian Constitution Day, marking its independence from Sweden, will kick off at 1:30pm on Sunday, May 17. The route will run along Third Avenue from 80th Street to Bay Ridge Avenue, where it will turn toward Fifth Avenue and eventually zig-zag its way to viewing stands in Leif Ericson Park.
This year’s parade is the first after the closing of neighborhood mainstay Nordic Delicacies, which shut down in January after almost 30 years. Media reports at the time cited the area’s shifting demographics, from Scandinavian to Arab, Mexican and Asian.
That said, parade organizers told Jaime DeJesus of the Home Reporter that they’re expecting 100,000 spectators on Sunday, and that “it’s an exciting time for Scandinavians in New York.”
That could be a sign that the Norwegian Day Parade serves as a cultural tradition that brings the local Scandinavian diaspora back to Bay Ridge, much the same way that the Santa Rosalia Festival on 18th Avenue brings the region’s Italian-Americans back to a neighborhood that once was, but no longer is, predominantly Italian.