The Scandinavian Cultural Society presents
Leif Erikson Day Festival 2025 “Crossings”
Date: Sunday October 26, 2025
Time: 11 am to 4pm
Contact: www.scandinavianculturalsociety.org
AGENDA – all times are approximate
11:00 am – Doors open for visitors to look at displays.
11:30 am – Opening Ceremony begins. Steen Larsen introduces all special guests and each one is invited to bring greetings and say a few words on behalf of the government or organization they represent.
12:00 pm – Refreshments served.
12:15 pm – Show video “How did the Vikings Reach America 500 years before Columbus?” about Leif Erikson and his life and explorations.
12:30 pm – Icelandic presentations begin to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the arrival of a large group of Icelandic immigrants in Canada.
12:30 pm — Show video of the first half of “The Saga of New Iceland” about why Icelanders left Iceland beginning in the 1870s to make a new life in North America, especially in New Iceland in Manitoba.
1:00 pm — Take a ten-minute break. Coffee/tea/juice and baking available.
1:10 pm –- Show the second half of the video “The Saga of New Iceland”. Icelandic immigrants struggle to adapt to a difficult beginning in New Iceland and then gradually move west to start other settlements.
1:40 pm –- Iceland’s Honorary Consul General, Glenn Sigurdson, speaks about the important role of the commercial fishing industry in assisting the Icelandic immigrants of the 1870s and later.
2:00 pm – The film “The Song of John Ramsay” is shown. In the 1870s an Indigenous man helps the Icelandic immigrants to survive harsh winters, poor farmland and a smallpox outbreak in New Iceland.
2:30 pm – The Icelandic presentations end and Norwegian presentations begin to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the first ship of immigrants to leave Norway and cross the ocean to North America.
2:30 pm — The following people will talk about their Norwegian immigrant crossing experience or relate the story of their family:
Fred Sverre on Egil Lorentzen who discovered the Lornex Copper Mine
Michael Ronnekleiv
Aslaug Boulier
Andy Anderson
Bill Emerslund
Fred Sverre about his experience
Leslie Anne Frostad on her mother’s journey
Solvi Stokholm
Laura Olufsen
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm — While Norwegian presentations continue, a Buffet will be available by donation — Pea soup, open-face sandwiches on Icelandic brown bread and Norwegian & Icelandic baking.
4:00 pm — Show the YouTube video “The Making of the Viking Ship Munin”. Learn how this half-size replica of an actual Viking ship (located at the Scandinavian Community Centre in Burnaby) was built.
Show the YouTube video “Kris Frostad interview” — tentative
5:00 pm approximately – Norwegian presentations end.
