| Merry Christmas. Godt Jul.
Guide to Danish Christmas
Nisser - you see them everywhere!
Once a year, Denmark is overrun by a host of little folk known as nisser. You'll see them everywhere; in shop windows, on the windowsills and walls of every home, and precariously hanging by their fingertips from picture frames. Nisser are Scandinavian relatives of the pixies or the elves.But watch out! Nisser have a tendency to misbehave if they don't get their way, and for generations Danish children have been pacifying them with bowls of risengrød or rice porridge hidden in the attic.
The Christmas stamp
Denmark was the first country to start decorating Christmas mail with special Christmas stamps. The first ones were introduced in 1904 and profits from the sales have ever since gone towards the four 'Christmas Stamp Homes' for underprivileged children.
Today, the Christmas Stamp Homes function as a place for children to spend a couple of months recuperating from various troubles in their life and get new inspiration.
Advent - the days and weeks leading up to Christmas
Every day from the first to the twenty fourth of December, Danish children open the windows of their advent calendars to find a small gift, a piece of chocolate or perhaps an inexpensive toy. Whatever it may be, it certainly makes the Christmas countdown a little more bearable.
The calenders can be formed in various ingenious ways, but the most important thing is that there are twentyfour days and a small 'something' for every day until finally, finally it's Christmas!
Special 'advent candles' have marks with numbers starting with 1 at the top and 24 at the bottom. You light them and only burn one 'day' at a time. Thus the candle shows how many days are left before the final 24th of December.
Another way to measure time before the 24th is the 'Advent Wreath'. Often it is made of evergreen twigs, red ribbons and always with four candles - one for each of the last four Sundays in advent - i.e. the last four Sundays before 24 December.
Special Christmas meals
A traditional Christmas Lunch table could consist of herring in a variety of guises, cold marinated salmon, country style liver paté with crispy bacon, comfit of duck, roast pork, a selection of cheeses and a special Christmas rice pudding. At the end of the meal people ready themselves for their journey home.
Christmas dinner
Christmas dinner is a serious meal for the Dane. It can be compared with Thanksgiving Dinner in the US. It is a family gathering, and it takes place on Christmas Eve, 24 Dec. The choice for the main course can be roast pork with crisp crackling, roast duck or roast goose. Now, you can have pork and duck anytime of the year; what sets the Christmas dinner apart are the special seasonal trimmings - sweet and sour red cabbage is indispensable for Christmas, as are potatoes, either white or with a caramelised sugar glazing drenched in a rich brown gravy based on the juices from the roast pork, duck or goose. The duck or goose itself is stuffed with apples and de-stoned prunes, and if that's not rich enough, extra flavours are added with jam or seeded and sweet pickled cucumber.
For dessert a Danish speciality dish known as ris àl'amande which is boiled rice swathed in whipped cream and vanilla, mixed with chopped almonds and served cold with a hot cherry sauce. A very old tradition calls for mum to slip in just one unchopped whole almond. The lucky finder of this whole almond will receive the annual 'almond gift'.
Sweets and cakes
Christmas is not the time to start a diet! Sweets and cakes abound and once-a-year specialities appear in the baker's window, filling the streets with their spicy smells. These treats include, klejner, (flour, butter, egg and lemon cut into elongated rectangles, knotted in special way it's impossible to describe, and finally deep fried), brune kager (gingerbread dough sliced thinly, flattened and sprinkled with finely chopped nuts) and pebbernødder (small round cookies made of dough spiced with cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and baked hard). Add to these, marzipan animals, fruit and nisser and the traditional accompaniment to gløgg: æbleskiver, which are a special kind of doughnut usually served with a dusting of icing sugar and a heavy dollop of blackcurrant jam.
Christmas Eve and the Holidays
Christmas is celebrated on the 24th of December in the evening with a Christmas dinner for the whole family. Gifts are kept under the Christmas tree, around which the family walk hand in hand singing the traditional Christmas songs. It's called dancing around the tree. Presents are traditionally unwrapped after dinner.
The traditional Danish Christmas tree is lit with real candles not coloured bulbs. Woven between the homemade paper hearts, hanging baskets filled with chocolates and ornate paper stars, strings of tiny Danish flags complete the decoration along with a star in the treetop.
Christmas lunch
on the 25th is usually enjoyed at home with friends and family with an enormous cold table that usually includes any titbits left over from dinner the night before.
 |
| |
| 
Come and join us this Saturday evening for a great night...
|
| |
| THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!!!
ISF presents:
International Acoustic Music Night
What:
international environment combine with "Danish Hygge"
Cheap Coffee
Snacks
Good music
When:
18 November 20:00
Where:
Azusa Club
Drejervej 11-21
2400 Copenhagen NV
(near Norrebro Station)
Questions:
networkISF@gmail.com |
| |
