Being russ and celebrating the russ period called “russetiden” is a Norwegian culture phenomenon that started in 1905. It can be seen in Norway every year from between the 21st of April and 17th of May.
The tradition was first started in Denmark where students finishing high school called themselves russ and marked this with partying and other rituals. Almost every country has their graduation and celebration but the Norwegian russ celebration is different and special in every way. The students dress up in overall that is even red, blue, black, or green depends on what they have studied and what school they belong to. The most common is red and blue.
Most of the students split up in groups with their friends and buy either a bus or a van so they can drive around every night to all the parties and russ gatherings in Norway. But the buses and vans are not ordinary, they get painted in different colors and have different themes.
It’s the buses that draws the most attention because they have unique designs and layouts, not to mention the interior with bar chairs, sofas, LCD flat screens and awesome lightning, it’s like entering a night club.
The students use a lot of money on these buses, up to $25 000 per person, but the average is $5000. Some of the buses have huge speakers either inside the bus or on the roof, so you can hear them and feel how the ground is shaking when a russ bus drives by your neighborhood. During the russ celebration the students are driving around in their buses and vans and partying all day and night long, and after the celebration the vehicles are sold to other students that will be russ so they can paint it over again in their own way for the next year. In other countries like Holland there are no cool buses, instead they have scary advertisements.
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