”Nu er det jul igen og nu er det jul igen, og julen varer helt til påske.” So goes a traditional Christmas song, sung by a number of Danish families on juleaften (Christmas Eve, December 24th) while holding hands and marching around the juletræ (Christmas tree, most often a gran, ’spruce’): Now it’s Christmas again and now it’s Christmas again, and Christmas lasts until Easter. Heck no! The arboreal dancers abruptly change direction, going counterclockwise, almost stumbling over the neighbour’s heels as they laughingly counter the original claim: ”Nej det er ikke sandt og nej det er ikke sandt for derimellem kommer fasten!” No that isn’t true and no that isn’t true ’cause between them comes the Lent!

While hardly any Danes fast anymore – quite the opposite, a lot of foreigners would say! – the song underlines the sad fact that the festive days won’t last forever…

For most Danes, Christmas ended on December 26th, the so-called anden juledag (second Yule-day, following første juledag, first Yule-day, on December 25th). Having enjoyed the pleasures of good food and family hygge, people embraced themselves for some ordinary arbejdsdag|e (working day|s). Then came New Year’s Eve (nytårsaften) on December 31st, where Danes joined the rest of the world in saluting 2012 with abundant, stunning fyrværkeri (fireworks) and raised glasses of champagne (pronounce ’sham-PAN-yeh’ in Danish). Earlier in the evening a lot of people had turned on their tv set to watch the Queen holding her nytårstale (New Year’s Speech), traditionally closing with the words Gud velsigne Danmark (God bless Denmark). This year the Queen a bit surprisingly called on the citizens to take more personal responsibility in a time of financial crisis. Media people started discussing whether Margrethe II was going too political (for someone supposed to be a neutral representative of the country), while most other people went happily to sleep somewhen in the morning of January 1st. Fortunately, the first day of the year is a public fridag (holiday/day off) in Denmark too, and the Danes had plenty of time to treat their tømmermænd (hangover|s; in Danish, the word is always in the plural), ponder over their nytårsforsæt (New Year resolution|s) and, eventually, tune in on the Prime Minister’s nytårstale.

For a few families, however, the days of celebration end tonight… Helligtrekongersaften, the evening before Helligtrekongersdag (Epiphany, litterally ’the day of the three kings’), has served as a Christmas exit for centuries. On January 6th, at the very latest, the Christmas tree is robbed of its finery and thrown on the heap. On to spring!