Christmas Eve in Denmark

As you know, my parent came to visit me this Christmas, and we celebrate Christmas Eve with my Danish Host Family. Christmas in Denmark is about three things; food, a Christmas tree, and gifts. Every Christmas, Danes sit down with their family’s and eat more or less the same thing. For meat, they have roast duck with prune and apple stuffing, and fleskesteg (roast pork with cringing). They also have normal boiled potatoes with gravy, sugar coated brown potatoes, and red-cabbage. After that, we have a very special ris a’lamande, or rice pudding with almond pieces, and cherry sauce. However, inside the pudding, there is one whole almond. Every Christmas, the person who manages to find the whole almond without eating it gets an extra gift. It took a while to work our way through the pudding, but in the end the almond was found. At the very least, this is a tradition that insures that all the pudding gets eaten, whether the guests really like it or not.

After dinner, and the first round of dishes are done, we move on to the Christmas tree. The Danish Christmas tree is decorating with ornaments, raffia, and lit candles. All the lights are extinguished, and everyone joins hands, rings Christmas carols, and dances around the tree. One can’t help but think of the pre-Christian Scandinavians who did the same thing with their juletræ over a thousand years ago. Although it was a little awkward not knowing the words to the carols, we got by humming along, and I at least enjoyed it very much.

Finally it was time to open the presents, accompanied by coffee, tea, and the Danish Christmas cookies. Danes generally try to open one present at a time, with everyone reading out who it is and what it is from, but in the end it generally ends up a little more chaotic, as it would take hours otherwise. As far as I can tell, Danes are one of the only countries to open their presents on Christmas eve, and not Christmas day. Christmas day is a time to celebrate with other relatives or friends, or even to go see a recently released film. It is still a national holiday, as is they day after it (aptly called Second Christmas Day), and it is a time to relax at home with friends and family. I think we all enjoyed experiencing an authentically Danish Christmas, and hope to have a chance to do it again sometime.

Christmas Cookies and Other Preparations

No Danish Christmas would be complete without Christmas cookies. This year, my host-mother and I made three different types of Danish cookies that are generally reserved for the holiday season. It is a great way to pass the time before Christmas Eve, and it makes the house smell wonderful.

Our first Christmas cookies were called brunkager (brown cakes), which are a lot like our gingerbread cookies. They are made primarily of brown sugar and syrup, with spices. The mixture is rolled into a log-shape, and then frozen. Then you cut thin slices and bake them. Ours also have chunks of almonds, which were almost translucent because the cookies were so thin.

Next we made vanillekranse (vanilla-wreaths), which are a sugar cookie. However, the dough is pressed through an old-fashioned meat grinder, which makes into long tube. These are cut into smaller pieces and wrapped into circles, hence the wreaths. If the dough is still cold, the keep their shapes well while baking, and the have a very nice texture. I also discovered that these cookies are absolutely wonderful when dipped in hot tea…

Finally we made klejner, perhaps the most difficult cookie. The dough was simple enough, but it needed to be rolled into thin sheets, and then cut into a trapezoidal shape with a slit in the middle. You then have to fold the corner through the middle, to create a sort of bow. IT is simple enough to start out doing, but after a while it gets difficult, as it is very delicate and time consuming work. Nevertheless, the bows are then deep-fried in oil, which makes them delicious.

The rest of Copenhagen was also decorated for Christmas, and I thought a couple of more photos might be nice.

Santa Lucia in Malmö

This last weekend I had another opportunity to visit the city of Malmö, Sweden. I was fortunate enough to go on the 13^th of December, which is Santa Lucia Day in Sweden and other Scandinavian Counties. St. Lucia is a festival day closely associated with Christmas, as well as other Scandinavian winter traditions. As a person, St. Lucy was a Christian martyr who dies sometime around the year 300 C.E., however the festival in her honor takes place on the same day as Lussinatta, which is a celebration that has origins in pre-Christian Scandinavian mythology. The two traditions were merged to create the modern Swedish tradition of Santa Lucia.

There was a great Christmas Market in Malmö during the daylight hours, with a variety of different food and gift stands selling anything from candied almonds and mini-doughnuts, to woven hats and scarves. However, once darkness falls, which is at about 3:30 PM, the real festival begins. Candles and torches burn in every square and plaza, and all the roads and storefronts have garland and LED light decorations. There is an ice-skating rink and a Ferris wheel. Finally, at 6:30, the Santa Lucia procession arrives in the main square of the city. There was a band, horse-drawn carriages, and a procession of children bearing torches. Traditionally, each town selects the most beautiful girl to become Santa Lucia, who wears a headdress of candles and fur-boughs. In Malmö, Santa Lucia arrives with a small choir and a plastic and glass headdress. Once they arrived, they went up to a balcony, and spent 30 minutes singing Swedish Christmas Carols. As they sang, it began to snow, making the experience even more delightful. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, watching a Santa Lucia festival in Malmö. Although it is a tradition that has spread over many parts of the world, especially in Swedish-American communities, it really was wonderful to experience it in a country where it has been celebrates for hundreds of years.

Malmö Christmas Market

Santa Lucia is a festival of lights

The Procession

Malmö's Santa Lucia-2009

A video with three of the songs we heard while it was snowing.

The sound quality isn't great, but it should give you an idea of what we heard.

(Note: It takes about 20 seconds for the music to start.)

Winter in Denmark

Winter has finally arrived in Denmark. The last few months we have had very mild weather, mostly in the low 50’s with a little rain. But starting on the 1^st of December, we dropped down to the upper 30’s during the day, and below freezing during the night. We even had a few flakes of snow last Wednesday. I have now taken out my winter coat, which has been out of use since I was in Russia, and have even started looking for a warmer hat.

Our First Frost

The first day of December also marks the start of another season here in Denmark, the start of Christmas Season. Christmas is the most important public holiday in Denmark, and is the time when many people’s favorite traditions are played out. Nevertheless, as most Danes are not religious, it is not really a Christian holiday. In fact, the name of this holiday doesn’t mention Christ at all; the Danish word Jul (Yule) comes from a pre-Christian Pagan holiday celebrated around the time of the Winter Solstice (21^st of December) by all Germanic peoples of Europe, including the Scandinavians, Germans, and Anglo-Saxons. Nevertheless, this old holiday was blended with Christmas, and the traditions mixed together to create a modern Danish Christmas.

In the home, Danes have some very special decorations for the Christmas season. We have an Adventskrans, or Advent-Wreath, made of pine-boughs we collected from the forest, with four candles. One of these candles is lit every Sunday leading up to Christmas. We also have an advent candle, with numbers counting down the days of December, which we burn every morning. As December is the darkest month of the year in Denmark (the sun will set at 3:40pm this afternoon), it makes sense that the traditional decorations involve candles.

Our Advent Wreath

The city also comes to life during this time. There are lights and garland on many of the streets, and the stores have all decorated their windows for the season. This year, we have some extra decorations in honor of the COP15 Environmental conference that will be held here in a few weeks. All of the Christmas lights in the city are LED, which use less energy that normal lights. Additionally, the large Christmas tree in the Town Square is powered partially by bicycle-generated electricity.

Copenhagen's Christmas Tree

Bicycle Power Generators

Lego Santa

The shop windows are decorated

Christmas Trees on sale on Kultorvet

Christmas Garland

Christmas Lights

Preparations for the Climate Conference

Welcome to Hopenhagen

I am not sure what this is for yet, but it is huge...

I will soon be posting more about both the conference and the Christmas season as time progresses, as well as all of the posts from my trip to Spain, which I have neglected to upload so far. I hope you enjoy!