For now, I am going to tell you about today, my lovely Danish Sunday. My host mother’s sister recently had a daughter, and today the whole family got together for he baptism (Dåb) into Den Danske Folkekirke (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark). Generally, the Danes are not very religious people. My host father once told me most Danes consider themselves four-wheel Christians, meaning they go church on four occasions during their life; their baptism, their communion, their wedding, and their funeral. As I also learned in December, many of them also go for Christmas. Nevertheless, today my extended host-family descended upon Lyngby Kirke, or rather we ascended up to it, as it sits upon a hill. Built in the 1100’s in Romanesque style, it is a beautiful old church. According to its English language promotional material, the church was built on the sight of an earlier wooden church. Apparently, people used to believe that the hill was once a site of pagan worship. It was fairly common practice in the past for churches to be built on the site of pagan temples, making it easier to converts to feel at home with the new religion of the land. Nevertheless, the flyer I grabbed dedicated the entire first paragraph to dispelling this belief, before it even states when the church was built., which quite frankly makes me think they are compensating for something.
That being said, it was a beautiful church. The ceiling was covered in frescoes depicting scenes from the Bible and the lives of the saints. These were of course covered in plaster and white paint with the arrival of the Reformation (Lutherans do love their whitewash), but they have been well preserved and restored. The service was like any other Lutheran service, except that it was in Danish. We sang, prayed, listened to a sermon about spiritual hunger, took communion, and then at the end we witnessed the baptism of three-month-old Vigga Marie.
Afterwards, we all went to Restaurant Kongekilden (The Royal Spring), which is located inside Jægersborg Dyrehave (Jægersborg Deer Park, literally Hunter-Castle’s Animal Garden). We had a lovely Danish Smørgåsbord buffet-style brunch. We ate, among other things, muesli with yoghurt, bread, butter, cold-cut meat, cheese, smoked salmon, sausage, bacon, eggs, fresh fruit, and a delicious chocolate brownie that we all decided was made of pure butter.
After brunch, and several hours of chit-chat, we all went for a walk in the Deer Park. We were hoping to have the chance to see some of the deer, but instead we got to enjoy the beautiful weather animal free. The weather was a little cold, but sun was shining, something we haven’t seen in months. The park is great, though perhaps a bit muddy. It is full of ancient oak trees, many of which have survived lightning strikes. It was a great end to the day, most of which had been spent attempting to interpret 30 Danes conversing simultaneously. My understanding of Danish is getting better, though I still sound awful when I attempt to pronounce even to most simple sentences. Maybe one day I will get a hang of it, but for now I must content myself with merely understanding some of what is going on around me. It will be a strange change when I get home and can understand every conversation, read every sign, and order a pastry without butchering its name.
