Summer time= party time!

June marks the starts of the "crazy period" in Denmark. As early as 8pm you can hear noises in the streets (horns, songs, ...) It is finally Graduation day!! Students in third grade (at least I think) have received the papers authorizing them to enroll for college. Usually there is an official morning ceremony.




From 11 am, another kind of music took over, when students get straight out from the ceremony at their school. Highly decorated chariots are waiting to attack the city. This festival is really very organized, each class having its own vehicule (which apparently they book sometimes one year in advance just to be sure to have one on the big day).

Then they visit with each student's parents one after the other, the tradition being that each one offer to drink (and eat) to the students. You may imagine that they do not wait the stops to drink a little beer ...! The vehicules are indeed fully loaded!
During a dozen hours they tour the city and sing, hopefully the driver is a responsible and sober pro. Each student wears a traditional cap, each color representing their discipline and have also an insignia corresponding to their religion (at least that's what we have heard).

Of course let's not forget the beers to keep going between stops!

Sankt Hans

Hide witches!

Here we celebrate tonight St. John (Sankt Hans), and we can say that the tradition is respected pretty seriously in Denmark. Each town, village or district of Copenhagen has its own Sankt Hans fire.
Example here in Hillerød last year: despite some rain during the day and especially the crazy wind, the festival was in full swing. Music, beer, sausages and of course the wood pile, installed on the castle lake. We even got to see some (small) fireworks.

For centuries, summer has been celebrated this way in Denmark and it is believed that this day of the year is really rich in "natural energy". I pass on the details of the early pagan rituals 8-)

For around a hundred years, they just burn a doll witch on the fire. Today the newspapers were full of stories of nowadays witches (a hobby like any other) who welcome the magical aspect of the evening while protesting that they should stop burn this kind of doll.

Happy Birthday Rasmus!

We already knew that the Danes loooved celebrating birthdays with great reinforcements of cakes and flags.
We discovered more recently that there were more than that to birthday celebrations!
The other day I was awakened by a group of young people singing (should I say shouting) happy birthday at midnight in front of the window of one of our neighbors ...
And a few days ago, a barrel topped by a flashing light (which did not last long thanks to the poor little battery to which he was bound) appeared down the street ... Well it's true, 30 years worth celebrating! So Happy Birthday Rasmus!

Alors bon anniversaire, Rasmus !

Easter letter

This year we have discovered a new Easter tradition: the "gækkebrev".
Strangely enough, we didn't notice this tradition the previous years. This must be a proof that we are finally getting to know Denmark a little better...
The principle is simple: just cut a piece of paper in very artistic way, then write a little poem, attach a snowdrop (vintergæk) to it and finally send it to a friend. Try not to make any distinctive sign on it. The letter must be signed with a series of dots where one dot = one letter of your name. The person who receives the letter has to guess who sent it to him. If the recipient guesses right, he is entitled to an Easter egg, otherwise he has to offer the sender an egg himself!
Of course, this is a very popular tradition with Danish children!



I guessed who send it... so I got my egg! Yummy ;-)
For the verses, there is a lot of choice on the internet!
The traditional:

"Mit navn det står med prikker,
pas på det ikke stikker."

More elaborate:

"Vikke,vakke,væk
her er en vintergæk.
Den lægger jeg i dette brev,
kan du mon gætte, hvem der skrev."

For models of paper cutting, if you know a site where you can find models, I am interested!

Soon it's Easter time!

It seems like Easter traditions in Denmark are almost exactly the same as in France ... (bells, chocolate, bunnies, eggs ...).
We have realized that on the decoration side, as usual, it's really over dramatic. For example, Royal Copenhagen the Royal supplier of porcelain, creates every year a porcelain egg with a different pattern on it. A different scene every year, the must being of course to collect them all and build a very filled nest (an expensive collection!)!

Fastelavn blooper

If there is indeed something fun during a Fastelavn party, it's to see all the failures!
There are those who hit in the air (a classic), those who lose their disguise when they hit, those dropping the stick, those who get angry, those who hit the fingers of adults who are there to stabilize the barrel .. .
In short, way enough to make a blooper reel!

Let's get candies

(Following the Fastelavn series)
The kids then headed to a hall where they found a barrel. Or more precisely three barrels, each dedicated to a particular age group.
Here I must digress. What's with the barrel? Remember the bible: 40 days before Easter, Jesus destroyed a barrel with a baseball bat. What, nobody believes me? Okay. The barrel tradition started - supposedly - in the eleventh century, the era of witch hunts. People wanted to kill witches, and well black cats too. Back then, a "fun" custom was to study the damage tolerance of a cat trapped in a barrel beaten by a stick. Who said "barbarians"?
Hence the expression "slå katten af Tonden" (literally beat the cat out of the barrel).
Today, of course, there is no more cat inside (maybe in some parts of Denmark that I don't know!), but often a picture of cat on the barrel and - of course - lots of candy.

So here is the troup ready to hit the barrel. Everything is very organized, the children are quiet and in line, each one gives a blow and pass the bat to the next kid and goes back to the end of the line.
The barrel of 0-9 years has lived a very long agony. It has taken countless shots but obviously the scouts who had assembled that barrel had done too good of a job and the poor little ones almost got exhausted before the end.

A ninja turtle fights against the barrel. A forgotten episode of the cartoon ...


All the strength of Pippi Longstocking was not enough to break the barrel ...
Luckily an adult has "helped" a little to break the barrel (I think she was eager to move on). Finally, the barrel is broken and the children were in the starting blocks to fall on the candy (don't be afraid, there was an quiet and equal distribution, nobody got hurt!).


A barrel after the battle ... this one didn't last long.

Fastelavnsboller

You can't properly celebrate Fastelavn without eating them! It's tradition to eat boller (sorts of donuts). Chocolate, jam, pastry cream, whipped cream ... knowing that there are often several "options" in the same bolle. A real calorie bomb!

The version with eyes and a marzipan tongue in a bakery window...

Version "I loooove cream!"...