CFN – Easter holidays just aren’t the same here in Denmark. For one, here in Denmark, we get an entire week off from school as opposed to the two days that Canada gives. But another way that Denmark is different, is that a lot of families don’t actually celebrate the holiday.
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This Sunday was viewed as just any other Sunday of the year, nothing special about it at all. My mum, sister and I spent the day together while my brother spent the day at work, and we had a very cozy day together, watching tv, playing games and going for a walk — nothing out of the ordinary. We didn’t even have any fancy meal, although, we did have lamb on Friday (even though you are not supposed to eat meat on Good Friday.)
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One of the Danish traditions is writing letters to other family members, but only signing it with the amount of letters that are in your name, represented by dots. (so, as an example, if I wrote it, I would sign it with just seven dots.) if the person guesses it right, they get a chocolate, and if they get it wrong, they then have to give a chocolate.
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Something else that Denmark does, is they close all shops for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Therefore, the only day that the shops were open was on Saturday, and let me tell you, people were shopping like there was no tomorrow.
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This is because it is often that Danes will go to the store once a day to buy the stuff that they will make for dinner that night, instead of buying a whole week’s worth of food. This Saturday is said to be one of the most busiest shopping days of the entire year.
Along with that, on Thursday, the city is filled with danish flags lining the streets, followed by them only being half raised until Sunday when they are fully raised once again. It’s a very nice thing to see as ou walk down the streets!
Although Easter was a nice holiday, it didn’t really have that holiday feel to it, but it was also a horrible time to travel and visit people, as my fellow Canadian friend, Anthony, who lives on the other side of the country came over to visit me, and there was not much things that we could do in the city, but we were able to make the most out of our time together, so it wasnt time completely wasted. I hope everyone back in Canada was able to have a really good Easter!
Tabatha Pilon is a 17 year old student from Cornwall Ontario spending a year in Denmark. She will be writing to us each week or as her “gymnasium” schedule allows.
