My traditions for this very special day include:

  • Seeing every government building flying giant flags, and thinking, “Oh, today’s a flag day? I completely forgot! What is it this time? …Oh it’s probably just some royal’s birthday, isn’t it?”
  • Looking up the list of official flag days in Norway, seeing that it’s the queen’s birthday, and saying, “Yup, of course.”
  • farquaad-point-ing at the small number of private individuals who have gone out of their way to commemorate a stranger’s birthday just because she married a state-mandated celebrity with an inherited position of political power.
  • Forget that July 4 is the queen’s birthday by tomorrow morning, thus allowing me to repeat these traditions year after year.