February 6 is Sámi National Day commemorating the date in 1917 when the first Sámi congress was held in Trondheim, Norway. This was the first time that Norwegian and Swedish Sámi came together across their national borders to work together to find solutions for common problems.
Sámi National Day was celebrated for the first time in 1993, when the International Year of Indigenous People was proclaimed open in Jokkmokk, Sweden by the United Nations.
Since then,the day has become increasingly popular. In Norway it is compulsory for municipal administrative buildings to fly the Norwegian flag , and optionally also the Sámi flag, on February 6.
The celebration in Oslo is particularly notable, where the bells in the highest tower of the City Hall play the Sámi national anthem as the flags go up.
By pure coincidence, 6 February was also the date in the late 1800’s that representatives of the Sámi of the Kola Peninsula gathered annually to meet with Russian bureaucrats to debate and decide on issues of relevance to them. This assembly, called the Kola Sobbar, has been dubbed the “first Sámi Parliament.”
Sameblod is an award-winning 2016 film about a Sámi girl in the 1930s.
365 Holidays a Year 