Archive for 'Culture'
Christmas in Denmark Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Dec 24, 2021
Hurra, så er det jul! (Hooray, then it’s Christmas!) For billions of people, that means glæde (joy) and spending time with familien (the family). But what is special about the højtid (feast, literally ’high time’) in Denmark? Jul [yool] is a very old tradition in Danmark – in fact, even the Vikings had a party…
Danes and Cold Water Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 30, 2021
Danes just can’t stay away from vandet (the water) – even with temperatures approaching frysepunktet (the freezing point), they jump into havet (the sea)… Vil du med ud at vinterbade? (Wanna go ”winter-bathing”?) The last few years, the Danes’ interest in vinterbadning (winter bathing) has just exploded. For example, there were 25.000 organised vinterbadere (winter…
Queen of Scandinavia Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 30, 2021
Did you know Danmark, Norge (Norway) and even Sverige (Sweden) were once united – and ruled by a kvinde (woman)? This month, Margrete den Første (Margrete the First), a film starring the Danish ”movie queen” Trine Dyrholm, is making its rounds in danske biografer (Danish cinemas). Let’s take a look at this important historisk skikkelse…
Danish Football for the Win Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 30, 2021
Jeg er normalt ikke til fodbold, men… (I normally don’t like football/soccer, but…) Recently, variants of that phrase have been buzzing around everywhere in the air of Danmark. Fodbold-EM [fothbolt-eh-em] (the European Football Championship) is upon us, and almost everybody has a good excuse to be excited! Farvel, nedlukning – goddag, kvartfinale! (Goodbye, lockdown –…
A Danish Lesson from Italy Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 31, 2021
Måneskin! [mawneh-sken] This month, millions of music fans learnt a rare Danish word straight from the poetry box. The unlikely incident happened when the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest was won by the band … Måneskin from Italien (Italy)! Måneskin is the perfect example of a Danish sammensat ord (compound, literally ”put-together word”). Måne [mawneh], of…
Cheers to the Danish Oscar Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 30, 2021
And the Oscar goes to… For Danes, denne uges store overraskelse (this week’s big surprise) certainly was Oscar-prisen (the Oscar prize) awarded to the Danish film Druk [drawk]. Even though many people had guessed filmen (the film) would win the prize for bedste internationale film, it still felt surreal watching filminstruktøren (the director) Thomas Vinterberg…
Spring is in the Air Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Feb 27, 2021
Der er forår i luften! (Spring is in the air!) Even though February is traditionally considered a vintermåned (winter month) in Denmark, the country surprisingly just jumped from frost og sne (frost and snow) to open blomster (flowers) – some say the temperatur increased more than 30 degrees in about a week (from -20 °C…