{"id":302,"date":"2012-01-05T11:24:41","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T11:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=302"},"modified":"2012-01-05T11:24:41","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T11:24:41","slug":"entering-the-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/01\/05\/entering-the-new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Entering the New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Firework<\/a>\u201dNu er det jul igen og nu er det jul igen, og julen varer helt til p\u00e5ske.\u201d<\/strong> So goes a traditional Christmas song, sung by a number of Danish families on juleaften<\/strong> (Christmas Eve, December 24th) while holding hands and marching around the juletr\u00e6<\/strong> (Christmas tree, most often a gran<\/strong>, \u2019spruce\u2019): Now it\u2019s Christmas again and now it\u2019s Christmas again, and Christmas lasts until Easter.<\/em> Heck no! The arboreal dancers abruptly change direction, going counterclockwise, almost stumbling over the neighbour\u2019s heels as they laughingly counter the original claim: \u201dNej det er ikke sandt og nej det er ikke sandt for derimellem kommer fasten!\u201d<\/strong> No that isn\u2019t true and no that isn\u2019t true \u2019cause between them comes the Lent!<\/em><\/p>\n

While hardly any Danes fast anymore \u2013 quite the opposite, a lot of foreigners would say! \u2013 the song underlines the sad fact that the festive days won\u2019t last forever\u2026<\/p>\n

For most Danes, Christmas ended on December 26th, the so-called anden juledag<\/strong> (second Yule-day, following\u00a0f\u00f8rste juledag<\/strong>, first Yule-day, on December 25th). Having enjoyed the pleasures of good food and family hygge,<\/strong><\/a> people embraced themselves for some ordinary arbejdsdag|e<\/strong> (working day|s). Then came New Year\u2019s Eve (nyt\u00e5rsaften<\/strong>) on December 31st, where Danes joined the rest of the world in saluting 2012 with abundant, stunning fyrv\u00e6rkeri<\/strong> (fireworks) and raised glasses of champagne<\/strong> (pronounce \u2019sham-PAN-yeh\u2019 in Danish). Earlier in the evening a lot of people had turned on their tv set to watch the Queen holding her nyt\u00e5rstale<\/strong> (New Year\u2019s Speech), traditionally closing with the words Gud velsigne Danmark<\/strong> (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<\/strong> (holiday\/day off) in Denmark too, and the Danes had plenty of time to treat their t\u00f8mmerm\u00e6nd<\/strong> (hangover|s; in Danish, the word is always in the plural), ponder over their nyt\u00e5rsfors\u00e6t<\/strong> (New Year resolution|s) and, eventually, tune in on the Prime Minister\u2019s nyt\u00e5rstale<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For a few families, however, the days of celebration end tonight\u2026 Helligtrekongersaften<\/strong>, the evening before Helligtrekongersdag<\/strong> (Epiphany, litterally \u2019the day of the three kings\u2019), 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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

\u201dNu er det jul igen og nu er det jul igen, og julen varer helt til p\u00e5ske.\u201d 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 juletr\u00e6 (Christmas tree, most often a gran, \u2019spruce\u2019): Now it\u2019s Christmas again…<\/p>\n

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