May, the candle in the window, and getting old in Denmark: The Danish Year Part 5
Release Date: 05/02/2025
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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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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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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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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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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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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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...
info_outlineHow 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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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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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_outlineThere'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 war, and Germany is one of Denmark’s greatest friends and Allies.
In addition, the elderly who do remember the occupation and the blackout generally do not live with their families in Denmark, families to whom they might pass on the tradition.
Old people in Denmark primarily live alone, and municipal employees come to their house once or twice a week to help with cleaning and make sure they take their medicine.
When they can no longer take care of themselves, they’re moved to a publicly-funded care home or a hospice, but this is generally only for the last few months of life.
Living cooperatives against loneliness
The elderly in Denmark are often lonely.
In India or the Middle East, older people usually live with their families; in the US, where I come from, they join “active adult” communities where they can golf and have affairs.
The Danish policy that encourages old people to remain in their homes as long as they can isolates them, in my opinion.
That’s why the Danish government, mindful of the fact that the average age in Denmark is advancing quickly, is encouraging the idea of bofæelleskab, or living cooperatives.
That’s when a number of older people live together in a house or large apartment, a bit like university students, with a shared kitchen and laundry facilities.
This gives them a bit of company and, not coincidentally, frees up a lot of individual houses for younger families to move in when the old people move out.
You're not the hip new designer or management trainee
Now, when I say old people, I’m talking about people over 67, which is the current Danish pension age. That will crawl up to age 70 for kids born today.
The problem for many people is that it’s hard to get a job after age 60. No one wants to hire you as a hip new designer or innovative pharma developer or management trainee.
Older people at the very top of the success ladder often spend this time on various Boards of Directors, leveraging their years of business experience.
Below that I meet a lot of older people who have tossed their career and their specialized educations aside and become office managers, or work in retail, or work in kindergartens.
They’re done climbing the career ladder and want something people-focused that is, and I quote, “something to do until I retire.”
A word to honor the old in Denmark
Old people don’t get any special respect in Danish culture.
I taught a group of Nepali students in Denmark once, and after the presentation in the Q&A period, they wanted to know if there were some special Danish word they could use to honor the elderly, an important part of their culture in Nepal.
But there’s no specific word in Denmark to honor the elderly. Especially these days, when the people who are old now are the former 1960s hippies who got rid of honorifics like Herr Hansen and Fru Jensen.
The elderly today in Denmark are called by their first names, just like everyone else.
Read more at howtoliveindenmark.com.