No announcement yet on church blessing for Norway’s King Haakon

Norway’s royal court had not announced a church blessing for the new king, Haakon, as the month-long mourning period following King Harald’s death ended on Friday, Nieuws.nl reported on 9 October. Norwegian royal commentator Carl-Erik Grimstad has questioned whether such a ceremony will take place at all. [1]

“I wonder what the blessing would look like, and whether there will be a blessing at all,” Grimstad told the NTB news agency, according to Nieuws.nl (translated from Dutch). He described a blessing as a strongly Christian ceremony and said Norway had changed greatly since Harald’s blessing in June 1991, five months after King Olav’s death. [1]

According to Nieuws.nl, Grimstad, a political scientist who has worked at the palace, suggested the new royal couple would probably want to involve other religious communities more. Harald’s funeral followed Christian liturgy but included candle-lighting by five representatives of different religions and worldviews, Nieuws.nl reported. [1]