Easter in Denmark

In Denmark the religion of the country is Christianity and more precisely Protestantism. We, therefore, celebrate Christmas, Easter and other Christian holidays and of course holidays specific for Denmark.

In Denmark Easter is a holiday where the schools close from Maunday Thursday till Easter Monday. We celebrate it with chocolate as eggs and bunnies, Easter decorations and if you want to, going to church, but it is mostly the older generation. In Denmark, we are not very religious, and if we are it is most often very private and it is not a big topic in conversations.

We have a tradition in Denmark to gather with friends and family for a big gathering around Easter and Christmas. So you as a person can easily go to two or more Christmas parties in December: one with friends, one with family, one with work and/ or one with your classmates. And it is the same around Easter, but, it is usually one with a family that is the biggest and most important. Here you get to see all the extended family that you do not see otherwise. Here we gather to eat a lot of traditional food such as lamb, herring, shrimp and eggs, meatballs, beer and snaps. It revolves around the classic Danish food known as “Smorrebrod”.

In my family, we also paint and go roll the eggs. The Egg Game is who can roll/ throw his or her egg closest to the goal and see how good you are and how long your egg lasts.

When celebrating Easter all the students in schools usually make Easter crafts in art class. We call them “gækkebreve” which you can loosely translate to “Fool letters” that originates from 1600. You have a piece of paper that you fold and cut shapes in with a scissor. In the middle, you write a small poem and sign it with dots, the same amount of dots used in your name. Then you give it to a person in a way that they do not know who it is from like leaving it on their table. They then have to guess who the sender is. If they are wrong the saying is that they owe you a chocolate egg.