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How to celebrate Easter in Denmark

26 Mar 2010

Easter is one of the longest holidays and after Christmas the most important holidays in Denmark. Because it follows the cycle of the moon, the celebration of Easter has no fixed date, and it may fall between the second half of March and first half of April.

(Photo credits: tordisvej / flickr)

Many Danes will take Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off before Easter. By taking only three days off, one gets a 10-day-long holiday. Some will spend their Easter holiday in a cottage away from the city.

In Denmark, schools and shops are closed during holidays. Some supermarkets may be open on Easter evening (check with your local shops).

Easter Lunch

At Easter, families gather for a festive lunch (‘påskefrokost’).

At the traditional Easter lunch, typically three meals (or more) are served. It is common to start with fish, for example:

Herring (in various guises: curry herring, white herring, fried herring, spiced herring, etc.)
Eggs (hard boiled)
Shrimps
Tuna
Various other orders as liver pate, ham, etc.

Next comes the warm dish which can consist of anything, but traditionally it includes either lamb, eggs, or chicken.

The third dish is typically a cheese buffet with e.g. grapes, red pepper, and biscuits.

Beverages for Easter lunch is usually beer (Easter brew) and other special beers. Traditionally, snaps is served with the herring, as it is as said “we must make the herring swim” - typically Aquavit – an alcoholic beverage.

To make things more festive, you can decorate the table for Easter lunch. For it to be true Easter style, you use bright colors, like green and yellow spring colors. Table decorations can be various, e.g. Easter bunnies, lamb dolls (påskelam), colored eggs (påskeæg), and small bouquets of tulips or daffodils (påskeliljer).

The Days of Easter Celebration

As in Catholic countries, the Lutheran Church (Church – “people’s church” – the Danish State Church) celebrates the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Christ.

Palm Sunday (Palmesøndag) is the Sunday before Easter, and it celebrates the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and its inhabitants, established small branches of trees in front of him. In churches, it is celebrated with the distribution of palm tree branches or small native branches.

Maundy Thursday (Skærtorsdag) is the Thursday before Easter, and it marks the day when Jesus had his last meal with his disciples. The bread and wine, they ate and drank were symbols of Jesus’ body and blood, and they thought of communion during a mass.

Good Friday (Langfredag) is the Friday before Easter, and it honors the day when Jesus was crucified at Golgotha (a place outside of Jerusalem, used by the Romans to carry out insurgents and criminals).

Easter (Påskedag) is the third day after Jesus’ death, and it marks his resurrection, when he appeared again.

Easter Monday (Anden Påskedag) does not mean anything in itself. It is simply an extension of the great celebration of Easter.

“Gækkebrev” – a Danish tradition

Around Valentine’s Day people send teasing letters. The letter is cut out and decorated with a snow drop and includes a little poem or rhyme. The letter is sent anonymously, thus, it contains a number of points that correspond to the number of letters in the sender’s name. If one receives letter guess who sent it, he or she gets an Easter chocolate eggs. But if the recipient does not guess who sent it, so he or she gives an Easter egg to the sender. “Mit navn står med prikker, pas på de ikke stikker”. DR offers a service where you can “cut” and send your own “gækkebrev” online.

Other ancient traditions and symbols

Before the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, Easter was celebrated to announce spring.

Easter is near the beginning of spring in the northern countries, a time when the light and the leaves begin to return after the long dark and cold months of winter. The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with a festival, where they celebrated their goddess of spring, through their symbols of fertility: rabbits and eggs.

The word Easter comes from Ôstarâ (old German) or Ēostre (Old English) or Esther (English), the Germanic goddess who personified the dawn and was associated with spring and fertility. In some Anglo-Saxon and German dialects, April was named after the goddess, because that was when the spring celebrations took place. When Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ replaced the pagan festival, but retained its pagan symbols.

Thus, there’s hardly a better symbol for fertility than eggs. In the old days the egg was also a luxury product, and when people fasted for 40 days prior to Easter, there was for once a surplus of eggs. Lambs and chicken are also fertility symbols which are among the most common and oldest Easter traditions. The Easter lambs is both an ancient Jewish / Christian symbol, as well as an image of innocence and spring time which is closely associated with Easter.