Both King Harald and Queen Sonja celebrate their 80th birthdays in 2017.
‘Like so many older people have experienced before us, one rarely feels as old as the figure implies. For us, it’s a bit unreal’,
said the king in his New Year speech, that, as tradition dictates, was broadcast on the last day of the year.
2016 has been a year characterised by hard fronts, and harsh rhetoric about immigration and in the ‘asylum’ field.
In his speech, King Harald emphasised that people must want each other well as not wanting each other.
‘If we have good dreams for each other, if we want each other as well, then much magic can happen. It’s good for us to ensure
that others may thrive. Both in the community of ours in Norway, and as world citizens’, said the king, who also maintained that
knowledge of our cultural heritage helps make us more whole as human beings.
‘There is a wealth of knowledge that helps us to know that we belong to a place, and do not live in a vacuum. That we have
been influenced and inspired by the same factors as the people who lived before us’, said the king in his speech.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
