Ministers, police chiefs and royalty from all over Europe will celebrate Princess Ingrid Alexandra’s official day – and they will not be allowed to go home until after the Polonaise. At least if they want to follow the royal custom.
Just updated
–
Princess Ingrid Alexandra turned 18 on January 21, but the celebration had to be put on hold due to the pandemic.
Friday night is the set for the gala dinner at the Palace, where friends, family, royals from the rest of Europe and the political elite in Norway will celebrate the princess.
And they are going to celebrate – until late at night.
At 00.30, it is opened for guests to “retreat” even if the hosts, ie the royal family, are still present. This is what Slottet writes in an e-mail to the guests, which VG has seen.
Common custom and usage when His Majesty invites to festivities is that the common people do not leave the company before him. And that the party is over when the king finishes.
Want everyone to join in the dance
“After the actual gala dinner with speeches and entertainment, comes something we are most looking forward to, Polonese,” it says in an email from the Palace.
Polonese is a Polish company dance in ¾-tempo, where couples constantly gather and divide into different formations. The castle encourages guests to find a partner in advance – and hopes that as many people as possible join the dance.
«After the polonaise, the clock has become approx. half past one and there will be dancing “, writes Slottet and continues:
“The party lasts for several hours after that, but should one wish to retire then, it is perfectly fine, even if the hosts are still present.”
–Ready for party
Storting President Masud Gharahkhani confirms that he is ready for the party – and that he has the stamina needed.
– I understand that it will be a long night, and I look forward to that, Gharahkhani says to VG.
– Are you good at Polonese?
– No, but I have watched some Youtube videos. I talked a bit with the Crown Princess when we were at the National Museum, and I understand that it’s just to keep up.
The castle’s communications manager Guri Varpe confirms that this is a celebration out of the ordinary.
– This gala dinner will celebrate an 18-year-old and is therefore a little different than regular gala dinners at the Palace, she writes in an e-mail to VG.
– We think it is important that the guests know that it is of course possible to go even if the royals have not left the event.
–Royal House expert: – You do not go before the hosts
Royal House expert Trond Norén Isaksen says that people must be prepared to keep the party going until 00.30.
– Yes, they probably have to. It is common custom not to leave until the hosts, who are the king and queen, leave. But they have started to pay a little more attention than they did before, and giving such a message that you can retire after the Polonesen if you want, sounds like a user-friendly solution.
– What about guests who are used to going to bed at a reasonable time, at eleven o’clock?
– No, they can not do it tonight then. At the same time, this is not as square as it once was, so you will probably find a solution if someone should sign up.
–– But for everyone else, it is customary to stay until the hosts retire, or in this case at least after the Polonaise, Isaksen continues.
He says that Polonese is a type of dance to music where you go in a certain order.
– But I do not understand dance, he adds.
He also adds that castle ball is a rare event, and that the last time he remembers that a dinner with dancing was held at the castle was in 2007, during the king’s 70th birthday.
– How to behave at such a dinner at the castle?
– The most important thing is that you behave like people. Gala dinners are relatively formal events with orders, tiaras, dress and white.
Bishop, princesses and ministers
Among the guests from official Norway who must dance Polonese before they go home are Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labor Party) and ten of his ministers, the parliamentary leaders in the Storting, two mayors, a bishop, a Supreme Court justice, the chief of defense and the police director.
Royals from Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg, among others, are also on the guest list.
Polonese has a long tradition as a ballroom dance among the upper classes of society: the Russian Tsar Alexander II constantly carried the royals with him in Polones during the Congress of Vienna in 1814, according to Large Norwegian encyclopedia.
The complete guest list can be read her.
––
