Is Scandinavian cultural heritage well preserved/cherished in MN? (Minneapolis: buy, elementary school)

[GlasirGirl]

Personal impression question for those of you who grew up in MN: is Scandinavian cultural heritage well preserved and cherished? Is MN a particularly good place for kids with Scandinavian blood to grow up knowing and feeling proud of their roots or has that link been obscured over several generations?

[uptown_urbanist]

It's still around. I don't know about "cherished," but Scandinavian heritage is very visible. Sons of Norway is headquartered in Minneapolis, for example, and there's still a church that offers Norwegian language services. You can major in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Minnesota, and I'm assuming Scandinavian classes are readily available throughout the state. If you have kids you can send them to the (expensive, but fabulous) Concordia Language Villages; they offer summer camps focusing on many different languages and cultures, including those of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. (Sons of Norway offers a cheaper language camp; maybe some of the other languages/countries do, too). You can buy lefse, kransekake, gjetost, and seasonally, lutefisk, at many grocery stores. There are a lot of Lutheran churches, too.

Minnesota offers an interesting look into an older Scandinavian culture, an Americanized version that is quite different from modern Scandinavia. But in general, no, it hasn't been obscured. Language has been lost, for the most part (although I did attend a public elementary school in the '80s that offered Norwegian), but the Scandinavian heritage of the state is still visible.

[Wingfoot]

Originally Posted by GlasirGirl

Personal impression question for those of you who grew up in MN: is Scandinavian cultural heritage well preserved and cherished? Is MN a particularly good place for kids with Scandinavian blood to grow up knowing and feeling proud of their roots or has that link been obscured over several generations?

Not really,this is a mass culture, coast to coast.

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by Wingfoot

Not really,this is a mass culture, coast to coast.

I agree that there is a "mass culture," to some extent, but having lived on both coasts and in between I have yet to live in another state that has as visible a remaining Scandinavian heritage as Minnesota (or, to be more accurate, the upper Midwest).

I wouldn't base a decision to move to Minnesota on that alone, though.

[Wingfoot]

Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist

I agree that there is a "mass culture," to some extent, but having lived on both coasts and in between I have yet to live in another state that has as visible a remaining Scandinavian heritage as Minnesota (or, to be more accurate, the upper Midwest).

I wouldn't base a decision to move to Minnesota on that alone, though.

As have I, you could live 20 years in the Cities without having a clue about the areas "scan heritage" .

[ozzie679]

Yes, Scandinavian heritage is cherished in parts of Minnesota. But over time, the language and traditions have been watered down. In the community where I grew up. Our Grandparents all spoke Swedish fluently. Our parents knew some phrases, and my generation knows only a few words.

[ozzie679]

Originally Posted by Wingfoot

As have I, you could live 20 years in the Cities without having a clue about the areas "scan heritage" .

Depends on your age and what part of the cities you live in.

[uptown_urbanist]

It's pretty obvious even if you're young and not at all interested in Scandinavian things; the newspapers have annual articles about local lutefisk factories, the standard chain grocery stores often carry lefse (and I'm betting the majority of Minnesotans know what it is is, even if they haven't tasted it), there are Lutheran churches all over the place (not just Scandinavian, I know, but a remnant of Scandinavian heritage), and you find far, far more people with Scandinavian last names in Minnesota than in most places.

If you're not paying any attention I suppose one wouldn't notice it, but if you look around and then compare it to other cities/states there are distinctive Scandinavian influences that you can find in MN (and that includes the Twin Cities, not just small rural towns) that you won't find in most other places. No one's going to beat you over the head with Scandinavian stuff, but it's pretty visible if you look around (and you don't have to look very hard), and even more so if you know enough to recognize what has Scandinavian roots. It's even more explicitely visible when you get out of the Twin Cities and go to the small towns with "velkommen" signs, or place like Alexandria with their big viking statue and the Kensington Rune Stone. .

I love the fact that traces of Scandinavian history is still in the state. It's evidence that some sense of regional identity still exists. It's now blended with layers newer immigrant cultures, and that mix helps to make Minnesota Minnesota.

[kuan]

The Fargo Marathon has a lefse feed the night before. There's pasta too but there's always lefse. THen there's this in Mora, MN. So yep, there are traces like sweater culture, lutefisk, but you're not gonna get a mini Sweden here.

[knke0204]

Finland isn't Scandanavia.