On February 6, the Sami flag is raised outside Linköping’s city hall to mark Sami National Day. The indigenous Sami people are one of Sweden’s five national minorities.
The Sami National Day is common to all Sami regardless of nationality and is celebrated throughout Sápmi. The date of February 6 has been chosen to commemorate the first Sami national meeting in Trondheim in 1917. The meeting brought together over a hundred Sami from Sweden and Norway, of which a large number were women. It was the first time in Sami history that northern and southern Sami from Norway and Sweden gathered for a borderless meeting to discuss common problems. Therefore, February 6 has been chosen as an important symbolic day for all Sámi, regardless of which country they live in.
The colors of the Sami flag
The tones of the Sami flag are red, blue, green and yellow, which are also the colors of the traditional Sami costume. The circle symbolizes the sun and the moon. The flag was adopted in 1986 as was the Sámi national anthem Sámi soga lávlla.
The Sami were recognized as an indigenous people by the Riksdag in 1977. Common to indigenous peoples is that they originate from people groups that lived in an area when it was colonized or before the formation of the nation state.
The rights of national minorities
Samerna is one of Sweden’s five national minorities. The others are Jewish, Roman, Swedish Finns and Tornedalingar. The national minority languages are Yiddish, Romani, Chib, Finnish, Sami and Mänkieli.
In 2000, Sweden signed the European Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities. The national minority legislation came into force in 2010 and was revised in 2019 with strengthened rights for national minorities. The municipality of Linköping adopted guidelines for the rights of national minorities in 2020. In practice, this means that the municipality must, for example, contribute to protecting and promoting the identity, culture and language of the national minorities.
Celebration
On Tuesday, February 6, you are welcome to celebrate the Sami’s National Day at Stora Torget in Linköping at 2 p.m.
