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Þjóðhátíð
July 27, 2017 @ 5:00 pm - July 31, 2017 @ 5:00 pm
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HISTORY OF ÞJÓÐHÁTÍÐ Í EYJUM
In Iceland, last weekend of July or on the first weekend of August, Icelanders have their annual shopkeeper’s holiday, named Verslunarmannahelgi. All over the country they celebrate in their own tremendous way by numerous parties and festivals. The most known as well as the biggest one is Þjóðhátíð, located in Westman Islands, an island outside the mainland with the capacity of around 4200 people.
Even though Þjóhátíð officially starts on a Friday and lasts until Monday morning, many of the festival guests try to get there a bit earlier to extend their dwelling on this magnificent island, which is considered one of the most beautiful places in Iceland.
At Þjóðhátið, you can be assured to have a tremendous time as the festival organizers provide a full time schedule covered with all kind of events for all ages. This is the place were the generation gap is filled and people get together in one purpose; to have fun and enjoy life over the weekend.
Did you know
The first Þjóðhátíð was held in 1874 at the same time as the 1.000 year anniversary of the settlement celebrations took place on the mainland. The reason for the special festival in Westman Islands, is that the local residents couldn’t sail over to celebrate with the rest of the nation due to bad weather and instead of sitting with long faces they decided to have their own little fiesta and they have been doing that ever since.
Today Þjóðhátíð is the biggest festival in Iceland with around 16.000 people participating and ironically now around 11.000 -13.000 people travel from the mainland to enjoy this magnificent event.