In the very morning of that day, when I got to school, there was a huge table at the front where I could read "free hot chocolate and waffles", a loudspeakers playing Christmas music and the students making the food were wearing red caps! And later that day, we had a farewell event at Danish school where we ate Christmas food. Something that commonly happens during the month is something called julefrokost, or Christmas lunch, where we eat, per example, marinated herring with curry sauce, red cabbage, cookies like pebernødder and brunkager, made with spices like cinnamon and pepper, and we drink something called akvavit, a spirir common all over Scandinavia. Also, at the four Sundays before Christmas (the advent sundays), kids normally get a little gift from its "nisse", or elf, and this elf is also said to cause some little problems in the house, but also does some pleasantries to the little.. Speaking on presents, advent calendars are quite common here (on those, you receive a little gift every day on December until the 24th), and I've got one from each family, one with chocolates and the other with Lego. There are also TV shows called "Christmas calendars", where an episode is shown every day in the same fashion as the advent calendars.
Something that differs a lot from Brazilian and Danish Christmas is that in here a real tree is used, opposed to the plastic trees used in Brazil. The Danish dedicate themselves a lot to the tree and spend some good time decorating it and on Christmas Eve, they all dance around it before opening their gifts. And the tree is also important to the cities, where one or more is put in front of the City Hall or places with lots of people around. Vejle, per instance, had two of them, fully decorated! But it's not just the tree that is put up, but the main roads also receive some care with lights and stars, and it looks quite nice!
But without a doubt, the most important day is the 24th, where most traditions are celebrated, and they are quite different from Brazilian: the day starts by going to church, where songs about Christmas are sung and where the local community gets together, and when the service is over they gather outisde the church to do some talking. When they're back home, lunch is eaten, and normally it is just some risengrød (rice porridge) with cinnamon and butter, and during the afternoon, dinner preparation starts, and it consists in roasted duck (it can be also goose or turkey), two types of potato (boiled and caramelised), red cabbage and the duck's filling, all covered in brun sovs. After, dessert comes in form of some risalamande (there is some more information about those foods here), and all eat it paying some attention to see if they got the whole almond, and if yes, the present (at my family, it was a box of chocolates won by my host sister, who shared it with everyone!). After dinner and dessert, the party around the Christmas tree begins, that is, we sing some songs around it, and in our case, we sung the last song really loudly and jumped around the whole house until we were really tired...
So the best part came: the gifts! They are all put under the tree and opened one by one, so everyone sees what the other has got. Each one got at least 3 gifts,and I've got only Lego and some clothes, and it is quite common Christmas gifts (and the house was 8km far from Lego's HQ hahah). After everyone opened their gifts, we just relaxed and looked at what we've got, but next day would be the one where we would use them, because here the actual Christmas day is basically a relaxing day and when we eat what's left from dinner. When the 26th comes, the 2nd Christmas day is celebrated, and it is common to have a Christmas lunch on it, just like the ones celebrated during the month.
One of the nicest things is that everything is under some sort of "Christmas spirit" during the month, with radios playing seasonal sings, Christmas-related events on school and a lot of seasonal food, like roasted almonds sold in carts on the street or Christmas market at the town,
If you're curious and want to learn more, just leave a comment under the post :)
One of the nicest things is that everything is under some sort of "Christmas spirit" during the month, with radios playing seasonal sings, Christmas-related events on school and a lot of seasonal food, like roasted almonds sold in carts on the street or Christmas market at the town,
If you're curious and want to learn more, just leave a comment under the post :)
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