Danish Holidays 2010
Of all the holiday traditions in Denmark Christmas is without a doubt the biggest and most celebrated one of the year.
But let’s start from the very beginning. The following list is about various occasions and the dates they are held. Most are held in the first part of the year and than there is a long dry spell until November and December.
January 1, 2010 is Nytårsdag or New Years Day and all business are closed on that day.
February 14, 2010 is Fastelavn or Shrovetide, which is a celebration with children dressing up in costumes and beating up a barrel with a stick. Fastelavn is celebrated on the Sunday before Lent. Businesses do not close on this day. 
April 1, 2010 is Aprilsnar or April Fools’ Day and in like so many other countries, this is a day for pulling pranks on your friends and colleagues. Everyone seems to get on the act, even the media and politicians.
Påske or Easter consists of 4 days and all businesses are closed during this time. Businesses are open on the Saturday between the 4-day holidays.
April 1, 2010 is Skærtorsdag or Maundy Thursday, commemorating the last supper.
April 2, 2010 is Langfredag or Good Friday commemorating the Crucifixion of Christ
April 4, 2010 is Påskedag or Easter Sunday commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus
April 5, 2010 is 2 påskedag or 2nd Easter Day and comes on the Monday following Easter Sunday.
April 30, 2010 is called St. Bededag or Great Prayer Day and is to celebrate the various prayer days and is always on the 4th Friday after Easter. All businesses are closed. It is a tradition to go the local bakery the night before St. Bededag and get “varme hveder” or wheat rolls to eat with melted butter and jam. On April 29th you will find long lines at your bakery getting these treats – join in, because not much else happens on this holiday.
May 13, 2010 is Kristi Himmelfartsdag or Ascension Day is held 40 days after Easter Sunday. 
May 23, 2010 is Pinsedag or Whit Sunday, which is held 50 days after Easter and celebrates the birth of the church.
May 24, 2010 is 2nd Pinsedag or Whit Monday and is part of the Whitsun Holiday. Businesses are closed.
June 5, 2010 is Grundlovsdag: or Constitution Day and celebrates the signing of the Danish Constitution in 1849. All businesses are closed.
June 23, 2010 is Sankthansaften or Midsummer Night and is celebrated with bonfires all over Denmark; it is not a public holiday, where businesses close.
November 10, 2010 is Mortens Aften, which is a unique celebration to Denmark. The Danes will eat goose or duck for their evening meal in honour of the legend of Bishop Martin of Tours. The story goes that the missionary hid out in a goose shed to avoid being consecrated as a bishop. But the geese started cackling and gave away his hiding place. So he declared that every November 10, geese should be served as the main meal in order to get back at them for their deception.
December 13, 2010 is Saint Lucia Day and is heralded by parades of girls dressed in white and carrying lit candles. This is based on a Swedish tradition, celebrating the martyr, Sancta Lucia, who distributed food to the beggars before the New Years Fast. The parade is led by one girl, Lucia Queen, wearing a crown of candles and the girls all singing the Lucia song. It is well worth attending a church service this day to be part of this celebration.
December 24, 2010 is Juleaftensdag or Christmas Eve, the day that most Danes celebrate Christmas. You can find out more about a traditional Danish Christmas below.
December 25, 2010 is Juledag or Christmas Day
December 26, 2010 is 2. Juledag or Boxing Day and stores are not usually open. Grocery stores are open, but the major stores do not open until the 27th, when many of the sales start.
December 31, 2010 is Nytaarsaftensdag or New Years Eve. Most businesses close midday – stores are open until 5 or 6PM. A few stay open later.
Now about Christmas!( as I have promised)
The Christmas holiday traditions in Denmark are really a mix of pagan and Christian traditions. However, to most Danes Christmas means lots of candle lights, soft playing Christmas songs (all the songs we know so well and have heard a million times before), the scent of spruce, oranges and newly baked Christmas cookies. 
The Christmas holiday traditions in Denmark starts on December 1st and will last all through December, but the actual celebration is a four day event starting with “Little Christmas Eve” on dec 23th. where friends and family gather around a special kind of home-made doughnuts called “Æbleskiver” accompanied by “Gløgg”. Christmas Eve, December 24th is the night of being treated with a special Christmas dinner , dancing around the Christmas tree singing Christmas carols, getting the presents, eating candy, chocolate and cookies. The joy of decorating the house, finding the right Christmas tree, seeing friends and family, shopping for presents and for those who are not too busy working, the baking of Christmas cookies is part of all the fun and joy.
The Christmas tree tradition is adopted from Germany in the middle of the 18th century. The church even adopted the tradition and some priests started decorating trees with candles in the churches.
In old songs we can find descriptions of “branches on a broom stick” representing the poor mans Christmas tree from that period. The traditional decoration of the tree over the years has been a reflection of the time.
The big treat for children in the early years of the Christmas tree was to “plunder” the tree of goodies stuck away in braided paper hearts shaped as little baskets or cone shaped paper baskets containing nuts, candy or pebernødder. Cookies and fruit (like apples and oranges) were tied to the tree with red or white ribbons and served as decoration, too. In the middle of the 19th century the glass balls and porcelain decorations started taking over.
In the 1930′s some people started buying a big candle and using it as a calendar candle, lighting it every day of December. Now we buy ready-made candles like that with the dates printed on them. For the kids, this tradition is a great way to do the count-down till Christmas Eve, which will always be the event, that the kids are looking forward to.
The Carbon Christmas calendar is a calendar with 24 little gates; one for each day of December until December 24th. and you are only allowed to open one a day. 
Some Christmas calendars even holds candy or chocolate behind the little doors. This is another count-down element for the children, and they really enjoy that,- especially if the Calendar has chocolate behind the doors! The first printed Christmas calendar was made in 1932 and the tradition of putting little “presents” on the calendar started after the WW2.
The almond present (in danish: mandelgaven) is a present you get when you find the almond in the traditional Christmas dinner dessert rise porridge. Nowadays they have “ris ala mande” instead of porridge, but they still have the almond present.
The Advent wreath is now seen as a very Danish Christmas tradition, but actually is was imported from the nortern Germany as late as the beginning of the 19th century, and it wasn’t fully adopted by people until 1940, where the dark years of the WW2 started and people welcomed another tradition that brought light and coziness to the home.
The mistletoe was originally a celtic tradition. The mistletoe protected people from evil spirits, and in the end of the 19th century the tradition from England took over, allowing a man to kiss any woman standing under a mistletoe, – a far more romantic tradition in my humble opinion!
The Danish easter traditions are characterized by a mood of optimism; a natural “waking up” after a long, cold winter – and seeing the spring flowers appear really sets the mood for joy and having fun together. Some of the old Danish easter traditions are all about being creative, teasing eachother and having fun.
Danish Valentine is in spring:)
or in danish: Et gækkebrev is a fun and cute tradition from back in the 18th century. “Gækkebrev” really means “a letter for a fool”. According to the tradition you send this letter, which is a richly decorated paper cutting. On the letter you wrote a little poem and sign it with dots – as many dots as there are letters in your name. The receiver now has to guess, who sent the letter, and if (s)he can’t guess that, (s)he owes the sender an eastern egg.
Along with the letter, you would send a dried and pressed spring flower – usually a snowdrop. 
The easter egg you would give to the sender of the Spring Valentines letter could be of any size, color and quality.
The most popular easter egg gifts would be the ones made of chocolate and beautifully wrapped in colored foil. They come in many varieties and prices – from a few dollars to the most extravagant ones at hundreds of dollars! Danes also use the chocolate Easter egg as a seasonal present for a hostess of the tradional Easter lunch. 
