The Norwegian “russefeiring”. The use of alcohol as a ritual in the “rite of passage” to adulthood

Abstract

The article deals with the use of alcohol in a special ‘rite of passage’, called russefeiring, among youth in Norway. Traditionally, rites of passage transform youths' identity and include them in the community of adults. Nowadays, not having these collective rituals, young people in Norway have invented a new rite of passage in the form of prolonged graduation parties, held by 18-year-olds ending their compulsory higher education. Thus, the russefeiring is a symbolic action that marks the transition from youth to adulthood. In the liminal phase of the ritual the young people wear special clothes, celebrate and drink beer and spirits during a period of 17 days, from the 1st to the 17th of May – the former being a traditional day of intoxication, the latter being the Norwegian national day. The article argues that the more traditional rites of passage are transformed into a passage to friendship, in which expressive individualism is stressed as a value, making the intoxication and fraternization among youth a ritual of its own. The rite of becoming an adult has thereby turned into a street theatre of novices who play with norms and taboos in public. The article discusses the use of symbolic anthropology and field methods in research relating to this kind of ritual alcohol use and intoxication. Theoretically, the focus is on studying alcohol use as a ritual practice. Post-structural theory defines ritual action as the communication of meaning and the construction of reality, identity and community. Use of alcohol can be defined as a key symbol in these ritual processes, offering an opportunity to communicate meanings between members in the society and culture.