Islendinga Midsumarmot and Islendingadagurinn: Icelandic Picnics

Icelandic families in Canada were aware of popular Icelandic picnics held each summer in Gimli, Manitoba. Impressed, Icelanders living in Victoria, Vancouver, Bellingham and Blaine set out to enhance their celebrations by assembling internationally. In the July 17, 1941 edition of the Blaine Journal, a full-page announcement was introduced with bold print:

ANNUAL ISLENDINGA MIDSUMARMOT

To be held at

International Peace Arch Park

Sunday, July 27, 1941

“Big plans are being made for the annual Islendinga Midsumarmot, which, this year, is to be held in the International Peace Arch Park in order that Canadians may attend without the use of passports,” explained the Journal. “Dr. Richard Beck of the University of North Dakota has been secured as the principal speaker, and he is deemed to be one of the best authorities in America on Iceland and the cultural heritage of its people.” Icelandic residents of Victoria, Point Roberts and Blaine were well represented at that event.

The Vancouver Daily Province, having covered the event, noted Alderman H.D. Wilson, Vancouver, and Arthur B. Langlie, governor of Washington, were additional speakers.  Taking cues from Wilson’s speech, the newspaper stated, “The first parliament, or ‘Althung’ of Iceland was founded August 2, 980 A.D., by a group which went to Iceland to escape the tyranny of Harold the Fair-headed, King of Norway. Prior to this, settlers had arrived from Scotland and Ireland. Alderman Wilson stressed the benefits which had accrued to Iceland since the founding of the first democratic parliament.” Later, he “revealed the interesting fact that in Iceland there are more poets and artists per capita than in any other country.”

These midsummer Icelandic picnics, previously held in Blaine’s Lincoln Park, and traceable to 1928 or earlier, were later called the Islendingadagurinn—Day of the Icelanders. Unaffected by the World War II years, the picnics continued without interruption. “In his address, Minister Thors remarked that back in 1938, Hitler approached the Icelandic government with a request to be permitted to install airports and landing fields in Iceland for scientific purposes, but that Island had emphatically refused the request,” reported the Blaine Journal, upon covering the 1942 Peace Arch picnic.

July 25, 1943 marked the largest attendance on record; “1,000 or more in attendance,” reported the Journal. “It took thirty auto trips over to Cloverdale to bring the Vancouver and New Westminster crowd to the park, but everyone was transported in due time.”

By year 1944, the Islendingadagurinn was assuming a new name, understandable to English-speaking people. The Blaine Journal simply referred to the July 30 Sunday event as an Icelandic picnic. Three countries were represented that year: L.H. Thorlakson, vice counsul from Iceland to Canada, Hon. Mr. Carson, minister of mines of British Columbia, and Dr. W.W. Haggard, president of Western Washington College of Education, who brought greetings from Gov. Arthur B. Langlie.

Attendance was well maintained with 800 reported present for the August 2, 1945 gathering. Sveinbjorn Johnson of Chicago, former attorney general of North Dakota, had to cancel his appreance, but Andrew Danielson, program chair, read his speech.

Postwar reports thinned. No news releases could be found from 1946 through 1951, but Prof. Halldor Karason, a former Blaine resident who was teaching psychology at Western Washington College of Education, participated in the picnic held July 24, 1952. Keynote speaker Prof. Finnbogi Gudmundson, addressed the topic, “Ræða, Minni Islands,” or in English, “Speech, Memory of Iceland.”

Little more is known, other than the fact the annual picnic continued, with people from Vancouver, Blaine, Bellingham and Seattle in attendance Sunday, July 26, 1953 “at beautiful Peace Arch Park.”

No press coverage could be found for years 1954 and 1955, but the July 29, 1956 picnic hosted speakers Eirikur Brynjolfsson, Vancouver, B.C., and T. Asmundson, Bellingham. Up to 700 gathered at the park June 28, where H.S. Thorlakson, former Icelandic consul in Vancouver, received the cross of the Icelandic Falcon.

News of the 1957 event could not be found, but Bellingham Mayor John Westford was reported to have addressed the picnickers July 27, 1958.

The 1959 gathering included guest speakers Prof. Halldor Karason of Western Washington College of Education and Rev. Kolbeinn Saemundson, Seattle. The Breidford quartet presented several selections. No record of the 1960 event could be found.

Keynote speaker T.B. Asmundson, Bellingham, addressed those gathered to celebrate Iceland Day July 30, 1961. Additional speakers included Dr. and Mrs. Sveinn Bjornson, White Rock, and Stefan Eymundson, Vancouver, B.C. Tani Bjornson, Seattle, was the guest soloist. Elias Breidford, Blaine, directed community singing.

Noted were the distances from which guests had come for the July 29, 1962 annual picnic. Iceland, Chicago, New York, Michigan, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Ontario were among the cities, states and provinces named. Mrs. Wilbur Freeman accompanied the chorus.

Icelandic poetry was the keynote theme delivered by by Halldor Karason, professor from Western Washington State College, during the summer Islendingadagurinn of 1963. He presented historic sketches of Iceland poets Bjarni Thorarinson, Jonas Hallgrimson and Mattias Jukumson, bringing his speeches to a climax by translating Iceland’s national anthem, “O Gud Vors Lands,” into English.

M.K. Sigurdson of Vancouver, B.C. presented a 1964 keynote speech dedicated to Iceland’s industrial modernization, improvements in educational institutions, and an upgrading of its living standards. Singing and poetry, as usual, were important features, followed by the annual picnic. Attendance had declined that year.

The Icelandic Day Committee, like the International Peace Arch Association, drew members from both sides of the border. Einar Simonarson, Lynden; G.P. Johnson, Ed Johnson and Elias Breidford were board members in 1965. Again, like the International Peace Arch Association’s practice in that time, guest speakers were sometimes drawn from afar. Keynote speaker Richard Beck from Grand Forks, North Dakota, addressed the annual assembly July 25, 1965.

The yearly emphasis on the quality of Icelandic culture rang year after year. Consider the 1966 address by Rev. Harold Sigmar, guest speaker from Vancouver, Washington, who, according to the Blaine Journal, “enumerated three special things that he had found of value and interest in Iceland during his two-year stay there with his family. The first was the intellectual and cultural interest found among the people of Reykjavik and every part of Iceland. The second was the intellectual integrity and emotional honesty and lack of social deception among the people. The third was the intellectual independence and freedom of thought found in Iceland. Rev. Sigmar stressed his love for the heritage of freedom and concluded his address with the whispered blessing in Icelandic, ‘Gud blessi ikkur oll,’ meaning ‘May life make all of you truly happy.’” Attendance was estimated at 400 participants.

Although the record appears to indicate the first Icelandic Day picnic was held in the summer of 1941, year 1967 was chosen to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the gathering. Some picnics were likely not covered by the press. It is possible that an event may have been cancelled, particularly during the late 1940s when the polio epidemic was spreading, especially in British Columbia. Held July 30, the picnic also celebrated “the 80^th anniversary of the Icelandic settlement in Washington and British Columbia.”

The summer of 1969 may have introduced a new trend.  “Presentation of the Blossom Time Queen of Whatcom County and her attendants by Darlene McNutt, a first-time event on this program, adds an interesting highlight,” noted the Blaine Journal. Characteristic of the late sixties, Icelandic values, like those of the larger society in which Icelanders found themselves, may have undergone subtle changes, bringing greater attention to people and places beyond their heritage. Notable, too, were two addresses given by Vancouver residents; the first, given by Gunnar O. Eggertson, was in English. Only the second by M.K. Sigurdson, was in Icelandic.  Moreover, the performing Vancouver Choral Society was unlikely to be of Icelandic origin.

If there was any price to pay for the reduction of such ethnocentrism, it may lie with the fact no further Icelandic Day picnics were recorded until 1972. Picnic notices appeared in the 1973 and 1974 Westside Record-Journal, and a 1975 report was more detailed than usual:  “With the weather in one of its finest moods Sunday [July 20, 1975], Peace Arch Park was the scene of hundreds of people enjoying family and club picnics,” reported the newspaper. “Foremost among the gatherings was one on the Canadian side where a tour group of 180 people from Iceland were given a buffet picnic dinner. This was hosted jointly by the Icelandic Canadian Club of Vancouver, B.C.; the Icelandic Club of Seattle and the Icelandic Committee of Blaine, the Freyja Club of Bellingham and the Stafholt Auxiliary of Blaine.”

Reflection marked the 1978 picnic. Picnic enthusiast Elias Breidford had “a program dating back to 1928 when J.M. Johnson was the choir director, Thordis Veum was the Fjalikona, Andrew Danielson was the master of ceremonies and Blaine Mayor M.A. Keys gave the welcome address.”

 Noted the July 26, 1978 edition of the Westside Record-Journal:

It used to be that arrangements included long drawn-out programs that lasted all afternoon with many species by noted speakers from Winnipeg, Canada, and cities in the US. There was also much music with many voiced choirs and a “Fjalikona” (Maid of the Mountains) who had her place among the special guests.

Those old days are gone but still remembering them are the few old timers who remain in Blaine. Ninna Stevens, soloist and director of many choirs, and Elias Breidford, also soloist and director of many choirs for the event.

Elias still has a program dating back to 1928 when J.M. Johnson was the choir director, Thordis Veum was the Fjalikona, Andrew Danielson was the master of ceremonies and Blaine Mayor M.A. Keys gave the welcome address.

There is also the memory of the Ladies Aids who in those days and later, contributed their services in serving the big dinners using the proceeds to help their churches and the community.

Maybe those “Good Old Days” are gone but the memories of fun and fellowship linger on.

Once again the Icelanders will gather at Peace Arch Park for their annual Icelandic Day picnic, Sunday, July 30 at 1 p.m. There will be coffee and cake during the afternoon.

Einar Simonarson, head of the Blaine committee, says he has already received letters from far away as Wapata enquiring about the picnic, and usually there are visitors from Seattle and far south as California and also from the Canadian prairies.

The 1980 picnic was noted in the Westside Record-Journal, but “only a small group of Icelanders gathered at Peace Arch Park for the annual picnic Sunday” July 27, although “people came from Vancouver, B.C., Bellingham, Lynden, Ferndale, Edmonds and Blaine.” Greater than the 1981 event that followed, was that of July 25, 1982 picnic, when newspaper contributor Allie Johnson, Blaine, reported seventy participants plus seventy-eight additional guests from Seattle.

Picnics were recorded through the summer of 1992. Since 1928, when Icelandic picnics were first held at Lincoln Park, Blaine, and since 1941, when they were relocated at the Peace Arch, the annual celebrations concluded in 1992 or not long after.