March, "Gække Letters", and the things lost in Digital Denmark: The Danish Year Part 3
Release Date: 03/05/2025
July, Nature in Denmark, and following The Daisy Route: The Danish Year Part 7
How to Live in Denmark
July is vacation month in Denmark, and it’s ironic that many Danes go elsewhere on vacation at just this time of year, when you have the best chance of good weather in Denmark. And I do mean chance – there is never any guarantee. Some Danes go abroad, driving vacations to Southern Europe are popular. There’s a well-known cycle in which the summer weather is good one year, so everyone plans a vacation in Denmark the following year, and then the weather is awful, so everyone plans a foreign vacation the next year, and then the weather is good, and so on. You can surf in Denmark Staying in...
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June: Danish pride, women in uniform, and the reverse Jante Law: The Danish Year Part 6
How to Live in Denmark
As of this month, girls who turn 18 can be drafted into the Danish military. This is new, even though girls in Norway and Sweden have been eligible for the draft for some time. Denmark is proud of its record on gender equality, so maybe it’s a wonder it hasn’t happened sooner. After all, more than half of the medical doctors in Denmark are female. More than half of the priests in Denmark are female. The prime minister is female. At only about 10% female, the military is clearly lagging behind. The way the military draft in Denmark works is like this: Boys, and soon girls, who...
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May, the candle in the window, and getting old in Denmark: The Danish Year Part 5
How to Live in Denmark
There's a lovely May tradition in Denmark of setting a candle in the window on the evening of May 4. This is to commemorate the surrender of the Germans and the end of the Nazi occupation in 1945. The Nazis imposed a blackout on Denmark to confuse the Allied air forces, so now that they were defeated, a candle in a window became a small symbol of rebellious light. I intend to participate every year on May 4, but I often forget, and to be honest I see very few candles in windows these days. A rememberance ceremony, forgotten You’d have to be aged 85 or older now to remember the...
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April, Gardening in Denmark, and what it means to be “Pear Danish”: The Danish Year Part 4
How to Live in Denmark
As the long Danish winter finally draws to an end, it’s time for Danes to start planting their gardens. Now, in early April, it’s rhubarb, parsnips, cabbage. After the risk of frost is gone, in late April, you can put down some beets, and chives, and parsley – all good traditional Danish food. By May, you can try with the tomatoes, which may or may not ripen depending on whether you get a warm, sunny summer, always a roll of the dice in Denmark. One year we ended up with hard, green tomatoes in September. Short growing season The growing season in Denmark is short....
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March, "Gække Letters", and the things lost in Digital Denmark: The Danish Year Part 3
How to Live in Denmark
Gækkebrev are a great Danish tradition, but like many other Danish traditions, they are fighting to survive amid the country’s ambitious digital agenda. What is a gækkebrev, or gække letter? A single piece of paper, cut into a lace-like design somewhat like a snowflake, sent anonymously in the days before Easter. A poem is handwritten on the letter, but it is unsigned...except for a number of dots that correspond to the number of letters in the sender's name. If you can guess who sent the letter, that person owes you a chocolate Easter egg. If you can't guess, you owe them a...
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February, the Cat in the Barrel, and the Absence of Faith: The Danish Year Part 2
How to Live in Denmark
Fastelavn is one of the Danes’ favorite holidays. It takes place in February, when the light is finally beginning to come back after a long season of winter darkness. "Hitting the cat in the barrel" - which used to involve a real cat, but no longer does - and eating messy fastelavn buns full of custard are part of the holiday. What's no longer really part of the holiday is its religious background, the idea that this is a party that takes place before the long lockdown of Lent. Kept the party, dumped the religion The Danes have kept the party while stripping away its source, much like...
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January, Skiing, and Income Inequality: The Danish Year Part 1
How to Live in Denmark
If you’re one of the bottom 80% of Danish earners, you’ll probably spend most of your dark January evenings and weekends at home, hoping your bank account can recover from Christmas excesses. Restaurants have a lot of empty tables this time of year. Shops mostly process the return of unwanted Christmas presents. Now, this can and often is packaged as hygge. Candles, TV, sweaters, warm slippers, hot tea. But it’s often just being broke and not being able to go anywhere. Yet if you’re part of the top 20% of earners in Denmark, however, maybe even the top 10%, you go skiing. Not in...
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The Danish Empire - without Greenland?
How to Live in Denmark
Denmark, as Danes like to tell you, is a little country. But it used to be a much bigger country, a bit of an empire. Norway was once part of Denmark. Iceland was once part of Denmark. The southern half of Sweden and a bit of northern Germany used to be part of Denmark. What is now called the US Virgin Islands used to be part of Denmark. And Denmark had colonies in Africa and India, which is why when you’ll go into many Danish supermarkets – even online supermarkets – you’ll see a section called , or Colonial. It features long-life products, like spices and nuts, that used to...
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Learning Danish through song lyrics
How to Live in Denmark
and a for you.) 🎵 Hans Philip: Formerly a rapper, now a talented singer-songwriter. If you like artists like Dominic Fike, Hans Philip is worth a listen. 🎵 Medina: If you enjoy female dance artists like Lady Gaga or Chappell Roan, give Medina a try. She has a long line of dance hits and some interesting collaborations. Fun fact: Lady Gaga's hit “Born This Way” was co-written by Danish percussionist Jeppe Laursen. 🎵 Marie Key: Are you a Swiftie? Marie Key, with her witty, introspective lyrics and focus on personal relationships, might be a good fit. 🎵 The Minds of 99:...
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Job switching in Denmark
How to Live in Denmark
Denmark has one of the highest job mobility rates in the world - about 20% of Danes start new jobs each year. Frequent job changes are a reflection of the Danish concept of "flexicurity" – flexibility with the security of the welfare state. As a matter of fact, if you stay in the same job for many years in Denmark, people start to wonder why. Young people switch jobs the most, of course, but even people in the prime of their careers, as well as employees over 55, job hopping in Denmark is much more common than it is in other European countries. In the Danish job market, staying in the...
info_outlineGækkebrev are a great Danish tradition, but like many other Danish traditions, they are fighting to survive amid the country’s ambitious digital agenda.
What is a gækkebrev, or gække letter? A single piece of paper, cut into a lace-like design somewhat like a snowflake, sent anonymously in the days before Easter.
A poem is handwritten on the letter, but it is unsigned...except for a number of dots that correspond to the number of letters in the sender's name.
If you can guess who sent the letter, that person owes you a chocolate Easter egg. If you can't guess, you owe them a chocolate Easter Egg whenever they reveal themselves.
Needless to say, gækkebrev are very popular with small children looking for candy.
(The "gække" refers to a vintergække flower that used to accompany the letter back in the day)
But the tradition is slowly dying out, thanks to Denmark's widespread digitalization. Paper letters have almost disappeared; it's quite possible to go for months without receiving any physical mail at all.
Stamps and coins are also dying out. While Denmark got a new king more than a year ago, I've yet to see his image on any stamps or coins...because I so rarely see stamps or coins.
Read more at howtoliveindenmark.com.