Icelandic singer and Eurovision hopeful Svala Björgvinsdóttir participated in a weird flag ceremony in Kiev in Ukraine last Sunday, in honour of Eurovision, which is to be held tonight.
The singer posted a video on Facebook where she walks to the smartly-dressed representatives of the contest, who are holding the Icelandic flag tied to two huge balloons. Svala writes “go Iceland” on the flag before it is released to the sky.
Vísir.is spoke with the head of Scouts in Iceland, Marta Magnúsdóttir, who said that the ceremony is probably a violation of Iceland’s strict laws relating to flag usage. Specifically, it’s possibly a violation to write on the flag—and probably also to shoot it into the sky attached to balloons—as it‘s clear in Icelandic laws that you have to use a legal flagpole if you want to hoist the flag.
Iceland’s flag laws are strict in other areas as well. For example, Icelanders could at one time be prosecuted if they forgot the flag on the pole over night. Although that law was changed some years ago, it is still prohibited to let the flag touch the ground. The rule of thumb was to burn the flag if it touched the earth, although nobody does that anymore, either.
However, no one has ever been sent to prison for abusing the Icelandic flag, and authorities effectively do not enforce these laws. As such, Svala and company have nothing to worry about when they return to our fair shores.
Here is the video of the ceremony (direct link for those with embed problems):
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