Labour day in Lillehammer

1st May - Labour day

Indeed yet another holiday for many of us. But in Lillehammer it was a little different story. People heartily remembered the labor unions, who fought for the rights of labors with the Judiciary for a long time, eventually got almost an equal status across all kinds of work and bringing salaries more or less on to the same platform.

Monday I decided not to go home instead stayed at Pramod's Apartment that night. He had witnessed some practices happening near the citi-center two days ago. So we were expecting some thing to happen on the streets on Tuesday (1st of May).

On inquiring we got to know that processions will be held at around 1.00 p.m. After about a wait for 2 hours at Lillehammer Kommune (Lillehammer Municipality) open ground, there came these little girls dressed up in white skirts marching elegantly on Størgata streets.

The lead or the anchor showed fantastic skills in whirling the flag around in all the directions he held. I tried capturing a front close view but with the crowd around it seemed not easy but difficult.

This group marched through complete city, we even tried following for quite a distance to get a better glimpse of the lead girl as she portrayed skillful hand at sophisticated sword exercises.

The next procession held at around 4.00 pm where several people held banners & posters written 'Boikott Israel' (Boycott Israel) and several such slogans which were out of our understanding range. Ladies prominently took part in the procession, it was no less than mesmerizing to see so many aged people taking this active part in a social event.

This group was led by a music band, dressed up in Black. All of them finally settled down at the Citi-Center, followed by two speeches for about 15 minutes (again out of our understanding range) but we enjoyed the ambiance and the thrill of so many people around for the first time in this city.

It looked so energizing to see young guys & girls hugging each other after the speech & Band music was over. It felt as if something has been achieved by them today, their active participation in such a social activity was indeed heart warming. Why these guys & girls were happy? Yes there's a reason behind that as well, which I shall cover in the next post.