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.

Winter Solstice

Today, the 21^st of December, is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, which means that the sun will set at its farthest southern point and will slowly begin moving back to the north. To ancient observers, when the sun changed from setting in the south to setting in the north, it seemed to sit still, at its southern point, which is where we get the the word solstice. The winter solstice, in the Germanic world, used to be called Jul, which is now used as the word for Christmas. As I have already written, these two holidays were combined during the Christianization of Northern Europe. Nevertheless, Winter Solstice also means that today is the shortest day of the year. This morning, the sun rose at 8:38 AM, and this afternoon it will set at 3:38 PM, meaning we have less than seven hours of full daylight. This may seem depressing, but Winter Solstice also means that the days are finally going to get longer. By the time I leave Denmark in May, the sun will rise at 4:47 AM, and will set at 9:16 PM, meaning we will have more than 16 hours of day, which is double what we get right now. I am glad that it is going to get lighter outside, and cannot wait to see the sun again. For now however, I have become oddly accustomed to the idea that early mornings and late afternoons are supposed to be dark, and that all important outdoor activities must be completed by three.

Goodbye Hopenhagen

Now that the Copenhagen Climate Conference is more or less over, I thought I would post some more photos of some of the different displays that Copenhagen set-up for the conference. Some of them were sponsored by the municipal government, others by Non-Governmental Organizations, and others by private individuals or organizations.

At Gammeltorv, right by DIS, the World Wildlife Fund set up a melting Polar Bear, made of ice, which revealed its skeleton as it melted. I will let you interpret the symbolism…

On the same square, there was also a photo display from Peru. They were very interesting, and well taken, photographs.

All of the protests and activity made the Copenhagen Police rather edgy. I have never seen this many in the city before, it was like the DNC in Denver last year.

On the National Cathedral...

As expected, there were also a lot of un-authorized postings around the city.

Finally, I leave you with my most confusing photo. I have no idea what this was, but it was set up for about two weeks, and had postings about auditions for something…

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.)

Commentary at La Campana

This, my final post about my trip to Spain, is an homage to the blog of one of my closest friends, who spent her summer studying abroad in Sevilla. You can find her blog, and her ‘Commentary at La Campana’ here. La Campana is one of the oldest and best-known cafes in central Sevilla, and it is from here that I wish to share with you some of my concluding thoughts about Sevilla and Spanish Culture. Having been in three very different countries in the past three weeks, I feel I am in the unique position of being able to compare my impressions of the three different cultures. Denmark is, generally, a quiet and orderly country, where everyone waits their turn in line, and where people generally keep their emotions to themselves while in public. However, Danes can be as kind and generous as anyone else once you get to know them and become their friends. Pretty much all Danes speak English, and the second they discover you are a foreigner, they immediacy switch to English, preferring you not to butcher their Danish Language, which I assure you is an inevitability. Russians are pushy in lines and organization is not a top priority. They are even more reserved than Danes when they first meet you. They do not smile with people they do not know and more often than not, from what I experienced, they are antagonistic towards others, especially foreigners. Many of them in the tourist industry are unaccustomed to Americans, and can at times be almost hostile towards them. They expect that you speak Russian, and even if they understand what you ask in English, they will probably respond in Russian. Spaniards are much more openly emotional than either the Danes or the Russians. It is not uncommon to hear someone yelling into their cell-phones in exasperation or frustration, a sight you would rarely see in Copenhagen. They are also much more friendly on the streets, even with people they do not know. Many of them do speak English, but if they know you speak even a little Spanish they are very encouraging and appreciative of the gesture. Spaniards are also much more pushy in lines. It was funny to watch them board the plane in Copenhagen, the steward had to keep announcing that only certain seats were allowed to board, not that that stopped the Spaniards from forming a mob around the door.

Some other random thoughts I would like to share about Spain. The people are so accustomed to warm weather in the summer that they find November to be cold. I arrived in Seville with t-shirts and no jackets, anticipating the idyllic 70° (21°C) weather, which I found warm compared to Denmark and Russia. Nevertheless, you could always tell who the Spaniards were because they were all wearing jackets with scarves. It was absolutely crazy that they could be cold in such perfect weather, but they were.

Spaniards really do take a siesta in the afternoon. I was very surprised on my first day there, when at two o’clock everyone started closing their shops and heading home until five or six in the afternoon. Traditionally, the siesta was designed to get people out of the streets during the hottest part of the day, but I assumed that wouldn’t be true in the winter, when it is nice outside all the time. Nevertheless, everything closes down, and you either have to find a café to wait it out, or better yet, head back to your hostel for a nap.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip to Spain. I am so glad I had the chance to return to the country, and I look forward to my next trip, whenever that may be. I would highly recommend the city of Seville to anyone looking to travel to Spain. It is not as touristy as Madrid or Barcelona, but it is still a wonderful city with wonderful people. I can see why so many people who visit the city fall in love with it.

Carmona

On my fourth day in Spain, I decided to visit outside of the city, to a small town about an hour east of Seville known as Carmona. The one thing I loved about Carmona is its history. This location has been inhabited for literally thousands of years. There is archaeological evidence going back to the Tartessians and Celt-Iberians who migrated to Spain in the eights century B.C.E. It was an important Phoenician and Carthaginian city in the fifth century BCE. Then it became a roman city called Carmon. After the fall of the Roman Empire, it was conquered by the Visigoths, and shortly thereafter it was renamed Qarmona by the Muslim rulers of Al-Andalus. After the reconquista, its name was changed to Carmona, which remains to this day. The city is full this history, and it makes for an absolutely wonderful day-trip. Some of the highlights include the several fortresses in the city, as well as its museum, which is full of artifacts discovered within the city. Below are some photos of what I saw.

Main Gate of the City

Citadel

Views of the City

Town Museum

Los Barrios de Sevilla

Seville is divided into several different neighborhoods, each with a different history and character. I stayed in the central Barrio de Santa Cruz, where the Catedral and Alcázar are located. It was probably my favorite, but also the easiest to get lost in, as the streets are very narrow and labyrinthine. I also explored many of the other barrios, each of which is unique and interesting.

Barrio de Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is also home to Casa de Pilatos, the home of the Marquis de Tarifa.

Very narrow streets, this is my Pensión.

Barrio de La Macarena

Monolitos Romanos

Muros-City Walls

Churches

Barrio del Porvenir

Jardines de Maria Luísa

Museo Arqueológico

Plaza de España

Barrio de Arena

Torre de Oro

Río Guadalquivir

Barrio de Triana

A working-class neighborhood across the river from central Seville, and the home of many of the sailors who sailed with Columbus, as well as the home of Seville's Artists and Students.