The Reverend and Russefeiring

A Norwegian reality show,  The Great Norway Adventure , takes American-Norwegians, some generations beyond their ancestral homeland, and initiates them by various contests to the true rites of passage real Norwegians are said to put up with in becoming authentically Norski. One of the contestants, who added some 400 Norwegian strangers as Facebook friends due to his television notoriety, is Grant Aaseng from Alexandria, Minnesota.

Aaseng is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Apart from the usual high jinks—working on a Viking fishing boat, herding cows, racing tractors, cross-country skiing—Pastor Aaseng and the other contestants underwent  russefeiring , said to be a “a Norwegian tradition where high school graduates mark a rite of passage by renting buses for a couple of weeks of rowdy behavior.” This included drinking beer while simultaneously urinating. Filmed from behind, the news report says.

Being of German extraction myself, I cannot say if this in any way would be a difficult assignment. But, we are assured, “in order to become an adult in Norway, [ russefeiring is] something you have to go through.” Ordained or not, it would appear.