King Harald’s funeral service will begin at 1 pm at Oslo Cathedral and will follow the Church of Norway’s funeral liturgy. The service will be led by Olav Fykse Tveit, Presiding Bishop of the Church of Norway, with Bishop of Oslo Sunniva Gylver also taking part.
The funeral is expected to draw audiences across the Nordic countries. In Norway, NRK will provide the official television coverage, while Swedish broadcaster SVT will begin its live broadcast on SVT1 and SVT Play at 11.30 am.
Before the service, King Harald’s coffin will be carried in procession from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral. The funeral itself will open with a nationwide minute of silence. President of the Storting Masud Gharahkhani and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will deliver memorial addresses, while music will play a prominent role in the ceremony.
Four funerals moved to other dates
The scale of the royal funeral is also having an unusual effect on ordinary funeral services in Oslo.
No other funeral ceremonies will be held in church premises or with the participation of Church of Norway clergy in the capital on 9 September. Oslo Kirkelige Fellesråd, the joint church council responsible for the city's parishes, has confirmed the arrangement to Norwegian news agency NTB.
In practice, only a small number of families are affected. Four funerals that had already been scheduled for Wednesday have been moved to other dates.
Funeral home Jølstad, which has been entrusted with organising King Harald’s funeral, said that only its Oslo office was affected and that the changes were made in consultation with the bereaved families.
For those families, the national event has therefore had a very personal consequence: plans for saying goodbye to someone close to them have had to be changed to accommodate the royal funeral.
A national farewell
Royal funerals occupy a distinctive place between private grief and public remembrance. King Harald’s funeral will be a family farewell, but also a national moment of mourning.
After the service at Oslo Cathedral, the coffin will be taken in procession to the Palace Chapel at Akershus Fortress. A private ceremony will then be held before the coffin is lowered into the royal crypt, where previous members of Norway’s royal family are laid to rest.
Following the private ceremony, flags will be raised from half-mast and a double royal salute will be fired. At the same time, church bells across Norway will ring for one hour.
Through live broadcasts, people across the Nordic countries will be able to follow the ceremony as Norway says its final farewell to King Harald V.