Hå - Wikiwand

Hå is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is the southernmost municipality in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Varhaug. Other villages in Hå include Brusand, Hæen, Nærbø, Obrestad, Ogna, Sirevåg, and Vigrestad.

CountryNorway

Established1 Jan 1838

AdministrativecentreVarhaug

DemonymHåbu^[1]

Quick facts Country, County ...

Hå Municipality Hå kommune
Municipality
Haa herred (historic name)
View of the Brusandstrand beach in Hå
Flag Coat of arms
Rogaland within Norway
Hå within Rogaland
Coordinates: 58°36′23″N 05°43′29″E
Country	Norway
County	Rogaland
District	Jæren
Established	1 Jan 1838
• Created as	Formannskapsdistrikt
Disestablished	1 Jan 1894
• Succeeded by	Nærbø and Varhaug municipalities
Re-established	1 Jan 1964
• Preceded by	Nærbø, Varhaug, and Ogna municipalities
Administrative centre	Varhaug
Government
• Mayor (2023)	Andreas Bjorland (KrF)
Area
• Total	258.00 km² (99.61 sq mi)
• Land	247.84 km² (95.69 sq mi)
• Water	10.16 km² (3.92 sq mi) 3.9%
• Rank	#281 in Norway
Population (2023)
• Total	19,649
• Rank	#67 in Norway
• Density	79.3/km² (205/sq mi)
• Change (10 years)	+11.4%
Demonym	Håbu^[1]
Official language ^[2]
• Norwegian form	Neutral
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
ISO 3166 code	NO-1119^[3]
Website	Official website
Data from Statistics Norway

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The 258-square-kilometre (100 sq mi) municipality is the 281st largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Hå is the 67th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 19,649. The municipality's population density is 79.3 inhabitants per square kilometre (205/sq mi) and its population has increased by 11.4% over the previous 10-year period.^[4]^[5]

General information

The parish of Haa was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1894, the municipality of Haa was dissolved and divided into two new municipalities: Nærbø (population: 1,806) and Varhaug (population: 1,801). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Hå was recreated by merging of the neighboring municipalities of Nærbø (population: 3,926), Varhaug (population: 3,454), and Ogna (population: 1,470).^[6] In local politics, the divisions between the three previous municipalities remain very visible.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Hå farm (Old Norse: Háar or Háir) where the local church priest's parsonage was located. The river running past this farm is similarly named the Hååna, meaning the "Hå river". It is not known if the river is named after the farm or vice versa. The meaning of the original name is uncertain. It is possible that it comes from the plural dative case of the word há which means "aftergrass" (the grass that grows after the first crop has been cut down). Ti may also come from the word hár which means "rowlock" (possibly referring to the shape of the headland on which the farm is located).^[7] On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled Haa with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled Hå, using the letter å instead.^[8]^[9]

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 5 July 1991. The official blazon is "Sable, a winch stand argent." (Norwegian: På svart grunn eit sølv vinsjestativ). This means the arms have a black field (background) and the charge is a winch stand. The winch stand has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. It is a special type of winch that has historically been used in this area to remove stones from the many farm fields. The arms were chosen to symbolize the hard living on the rocky soils of the municipality. A winch of this type (called a "steinbukk") is used locally for the removal of large stones from the soil for agricultural purposes. It's three legs also represent the three previous municipalities of Nærbø, Varhaug, and Ogna that were merged to creat Hå in 1964. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.^[10]^[11]^[12]

Churches

The Church of Norway has three parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Hå. It is part of the Jæren prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Stavanger.

More information Parish (sokn), Church name ...

**Churches in Hå**
Parish (sokn)	Church name	Location of the church	Year built
Nærbø	Nærbø Church	Nærbø	2005
Nærbø	Old Nærbø Church	Nærbø	1834
Ogna	Ogna Church	Ogna	1250
Varhaug	Varhaug Church	Varhaug	1904

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Government

Hå Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council.^[13] The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Sør-Rogaland District Court and the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Hå is made up of 33 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.