{"id":14308,"date":"2020-05-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/stora-upplestarkeppnin-2020-fyrsta-hatidin-i-kjolfar-covid19\/"},"modified":"2022-10-25T09:03:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T09:03:14","slug":"the-great-reading-competition-2020-the-first-celebration-in-the-wake-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/stora-upplestarkeppnin-2020-fyrsta-hatidin-i-kjolfar-covid19\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Reading Competition 2020 \u2013 the first festival following Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was deemed appropriate that the first event in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur following Covid-19 should be the final festival of the Grand Reading Competition, which is usually held at Hafnarborg in March each year. \u201eThis is a harvest festival that is eagerly awaited and crystallises the importance of the Icelandic language, tireless practice, success and anticipation.\u201c, <\/em>as the Mayor of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, R\u00f3sa Gu\u00f0bjartsd\u00f3ttir, so aptly put it in her speech at the festival. The festival was open exclusively to readers and their families, as well as others with a role in the event. The President of Iceland, Gu\u00f0ni Th. J\u00f3hannesson, honoured the readers and guests with his presence, presented book gifts and gave a short speech.  <\/p>\n

\"Winner\"<\/p>\n

The prize-winning group with the President of Iceland, the Mayor of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, the Chair of the Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur Education Committee and the mother of the reading competition. Back row, from left: Krist\u00edn Thoroddsen, Chair of the Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur Education Committee; President of Iceland, Gu\u00f0ni Th. J\u00f3hannesson; Ingibj\u00f6rg Einarsd\u00f3ttir, founder of the competition; and R\u00f3sa Gu\u00f0bjarts\u00f3ttir, Mayor of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur. In the front row, from left to right, are this year's competition winners: Dagbj\u00f6rg Birna Sigur\u00f0ard\u00f3ttir from Setbergssk\u00f3li (3rd prize), Ellen Mar\u00eda Arnarsd\u00f3ttir from Hvaleyrarsk\u00f3li (1st prize) and Sm\u00e1ri Hannesson from L\u00e6kjarsk\u00f3li (3rd prize).<\/sup><\/p>\n

A professional and beautiful reading by 16 students<\/h4>\n

The Grand Reading Competition began as a pilot project on reading in the winter of 1996-1997. The competition has grown and expanded with each passing year, and participants, and thus role models in reading the Icelandic language, can now be found in almost every municipality in the country. The awards ceremony for the Great Reading Competition in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur was this time held in V\u00ed\u00f0ista\u00f0akirkja, where 16 pupils from the 7th grades of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur's primary schools took centre stage. Two pupils from each primary school took to the stage to give a professional and beautiful reading on behalf of their school, performing texts and poems by the competition's poets. This year's poets were J\u00f3n J\u00f3nsson \u00far V\u00f6r and Birkir Bl\u00e6r Ing\u00f3lfsson, who also delivered the keynote speech. Descendants of J\u00f3n J\u00f3nsson were in the hall and were called up to receive gifts. Students from the Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur School of Music sang and played musical instruments, and Layan Ahmed Abukhalifa recited a poem in Arabic. The President of Iceland presented the students with a poetry book, which the Association of Icelandic Publishers had given to all students. The Mayor of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, R\u00f3sa Gu\u00f0bjartsd\u00f3ttir, gave a speech, encouraging the students and thanking them for the beautiful reading.<\/p>\n

Everyone comes out a winner<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Great Reading Competition isn't about being the first to the finish line, but about practice and perfecting one's reading. All pupils in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur's primary schools are therefore the winners after the event. The standouts among their peers were Ellen Mar\u00eda Arnarsd\u00f3ttir from Hvaleyrarsk\u00f3li, who won 1st prize for her reading; Sm\u00e1ri Hannesson from L\u00e6kjarsk\u00f3li, who won 2nd prize; and Dagbj\u00f6rg Birna Sigur\u00f0ard\u00f3ttir from Setbergssk\u00f3li, who won 3rd prize. Kolbeinn Tumi \u00c1rnason received a prize for the festival's poster. Awards were also given in the primary schools' short story competition. The story It really matters. <\/em>The story by J\u00f3n Ragnar Einarsson in Year 10 at Hraunvallar School came first. The Mirror <\/em>by Gu\u00f0mundur P\u00e9tur Dungal N\u00edelsson in Year 10 at V\u00ed\u00f0ista\u00f0ask\u00f3li came second, and two stories came third, Double joy<\/em> by Saga Mar\u00eda Michaelsd\u00f3ttir and The Family Secret <\/em>by Anna Lilja D. Gunnarsd\u00f3ttir and they are both in Year 10 at V\u00ed\u00f0ista\u00f0ask\u00f3li.<\/p>\n

Recently, Ingibj\u00f6rg Einarsd\u00f3ttir, the founder of the competition, was interviewed on Vitanum, the City of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur's podcast. In it, she goes over the competition's history, aims and purpose. We encourage you to listen to the interview. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00dea\u00f0 \u00fe\u00f3tti vi\u00f0eigandi a\u00f0 fyrsta h\u00e1t\u00ed\u00f0in \u00ed Hafnarfir\u00f0i \u00ed kj\u00f6lfar Covid19 v\u00e6ri lokah\u00e1t\u00ed\u00f0 St\u00f3ru upplestrarkeppninnar sem allajafna er haldin \u00ed Hafnarborg \u00ed mars \u00e1r hvert. „Um er a\u00f0 r\u00e6\u00f0a uppskeruh\u00e1t\u00ed\u00f0 sem be\u00f0i\u00f0 er \u00ed ofv\u00e6ni og \u00ed kristallast mikilv\u00e6gi \u00edslenskrar tungu, \u00ferotlausar \u00e6fingar, \u00e1rangur og eftirv\u00e6nting“, eins og b\u00e6jarstj\u00f3ri Hafnarfjar\u00f0ar, R\u00f3sa Gu\u00f0bjartsd\u00f3ttir, komst svo vel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-frettir"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14308"}],"curies":[{"name":"WordPress","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}