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The Bygdelags

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    The bygdelags, or ‘lags’ for short, were a group of communities in America and each lag represented a city or region that Norwegians had immigrated to America from. Many Norwegians had traveled together from the same place and so were able to establish new communities with residents from the same place for the most part. For instance, Stavangerlaget was composed of Norwegians who had come from Stavanger and their descendants. This wasn’t the case for every lag, and some formed out of communities with mixed origins, but the majority of Norwegian immigrant communities that stayed together formed their own lag. Many prominent Norwegian-Americans belonged to a lag.

It was Stavangerlaget that proposed the idea of the Norse-American Centennial officially first, during a general meeting of the bygdelags in 1915, but meaningful action wasn’t taken until a committee was appointed in 1919 to begin planning the Centennial. This early committee consisted of leading members of various bygdelags, such as Rev. L. P. Thorkveen of Gudbrandsdalslaget, Prof. J. Tanner of Romsdalslaget, and Marius Hagen of Solørlaget amongst others. 

During the Centennial, each bygdelag would have its own meeting during the first day, which was called Bygdelag Day.