February 6 - Sámi National Day in Northern Scandinavia

Posted on February 6, 2022

Key points

This is an update of my post published on February 6, 2011:

The Sámi are indigenous people who live in the arctic regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and part of Russia. Their languages and traditional ways of life – which centered around reindeer herding – are endangered, and in the past this native group faced pressure to adopt the language and culture of the majority Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Russian cultures. For example, the Sámi languages used to be forbidden in schools, and Norway had policies that required proof of knowledge of the Norwegian language and even possession of a Norwegian name in order to buy or lease state lands.

The northern lands that the Sámi have lived on for five to ten thousand years used to be called Lapland, and the Sámi themselves were called Lap, Lapp, or Laplanders. These terms are considered belittling by many Sámi and are used less today.

The land of the Sámi is called Sápmi.

On this day in 1917, Sámi from Norway and Sweden got together to form the first Sámi Congress. There they began to work together to solve their common problems. In 1992, the fifteenth Sámi Congress decided to celebrate February 6 each year as a reminder of that first meeting. A researcher later discovered that Sámi peoples who lived on an arctic peninsula in Russia used to meet with Russian officials on February 6 each year—something that was known by neither the Sámi who set up the first congress, nor the Sámi who voted to create this national day. What a coincidence, huh?

In Norway on this day, the Sámi flag is flown, city hall bells play a Sámi song, and festivities take place honoring the Sámi.