Danish culture

Trying to catch up on the Danish culture I have missed out on by ignorance or simply by living abroad, I have watched a lot of Danish films lately. Yesterday, reviewing Idioterne, I came to think about how little censorship was and is enforced in Danish media.
Naked people? No problem, show it on the silverscreen, show the kids on primetime TV. Naked people by Lars von Trier? The same... however these characters engage in explicit sex, in broad daylight, 10+ people in the same scene. No big stir, no uproar, except outside Denmark. So I am wondering: does this give Danish culture an image of tolerance, or plain blunt insensitivity?

Bread Heads

A big fraction of my colleagues seem to have a passion for bread. Not only do many of them have a bread machine, but they like to bake often and try out and even optimise different bread recipes.
When in Denmark I used to bake bread every second week or so. I would make ciabatta, dark bread, walnut bread (my favourite) and other types too, all yeast recipes and kneaded by hand. Though I love homemade bread I have not dared to start experimenting with the rather unreliable oven we have in the house where I live. But for lunch I have made a good bread deal: Since I came to the Netherlands, I realised how much I love the typical Danish rye bread. Recently I found out that a colleague of mine can buy some similar rye bread at a German bakery where she lives, so since then we made a deal that she brings me a fresh delicious rye bread from her baker every week. Mmmm... delicious!

Photo courtesy: Malaysiabest.net

Ban Bamse & Kylling

The recent events in Poland, where Ewa Sowinska has pointed out the danger of homosexual tendencies expressed by the purple Teletubby Tinky Winky, gives inspiration to further investigation. We should seriously scrutinize all the innocent-looking children series for such more or less apparent "Bad Influence". For example I suggest we start with the Danish tv-series "Bamses Billedbog", where the two male characters Bamse and Kylling often hug, hold hands, or even dress up as husband and wife (Sven Herlig and Dorthe Elisabeth, see picture). This is of course an apparent example of how simple games is a direct suggestion for your children to become homosexuals.
Illustration courtesy: DR.dk

Walk around the christmas tree

For some reason it is custom in Denmark, but not in the Netherlands, to walk around the christmas tree while singing the christmas songs. My Dutch colleagues hardly believed me when I told them, so I made sure to get some proof using the camera on my phone to both take pictures and record a video of people walking round the tree while singing.

Cloves in oranges

I never knew that it was a special Danish christmas tradition until I presented the idea for my Dutch housemates: In Denmark we put cloves in oranges for christmas for the scent and decoration. Often the oranges are also decorated or hung up by red silk ribbons.

My housemates now think Danes are crazy as far as christmas traditions goes...

Illustration and step-by-step instructions from Ask-Alex.dk