Påskedag, or Danish Easter

Hey all! Just thought I'd write a quick post on Danish Easter, or Påskedag (sort of pronounced like POH-skeh-dae) since...it's Easter!

The Danes I've talked to have a few Easter traditions, and some are kind of similar to those in the U.S.

For example, they do have the Easter Bunny. As far as I can tell, it's not plastered all over everything like an icon of the holiday or anything, and as far as I can tell, no Danish child has ever gotten their picture taken with someone in costume pretending to BE the Easter Bunny...

...but the bunny exists.

The Easter Bunny brings chocolate eggs and hides them around the garden on the Saturday night before Easter Sunday, so I guess Easter Egg Hunts are another similarity. I'm pretty sure that it's just chocolate eggs placed outside here, though, and in the U.S., the candy was in plastic colorful eggs. I haven't seen any of those in Denmark.

I also haven't seen any indication that the Easter Bunny comes into the home or leaves Easter baskets full of goodies in Denmark. I hadn't really noticed the lack of bunny baskets in the stores or anything until I saw a post on the Americans in Denmark Facebook page asking if other American parents were playing Easter Bunny last night. The post was full of photos of other Americans' improvised Easter baskets for their kids.

I wasn't actually going to do anything for Easter for the kids, because, just like the bakeries did at Fastelavn time, they made all kinds of delicious Easter treats, and Zac had purchased some for the family before Khloe and I left for London.

Påskechoux - choux pastry dough filled with Boston creme and caramel, topped with a lovely merengue

Eggs filled with marzipan and gooey chocolate covered in chocolate - milk chocolate, dark chocolate, strawberry, orange, and pistachio.

I sort of thought those treats were celebration enough, but unfortunately, on Saturday morning, Harrison was drawing and he asked, "Are we going to celebrate Easter?" and Zac and I said, "Probably not - we were just going to have a movie night or something." Harrison very sadly cried, "We NEVER celebrate ANYTHING!" (I think this is because he had recently wondered what we were doing to celebrate Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day and we tried to explain they weren't really big holidays that we plan celebrations for like Halloween or Christmas, but he was still upset because he loves a celebration.)

Anyway, he got to me, so when Zac and I took advantage of the stores being open on Saturday (they will not be open today or Monday) to get groceries, I got each of the kids two little bags of candy (one chocolate, one gummy), a special drink, and something small they could use or play with. Khloe got a hair claw in her favorite color of green, Kaden got a razor since he's been asking for one, and Harrison got a Rubik's cube because he keeps trying to solve Kaden's, which is unsolvable because he took the stickers off once and put them back on wrong.

My mom had custom easter totes made for each of her grandkids a few years ago, and when we were mostly packed up and had purged most of our holiday decor before the move to Denmark, she showed up at my house and handed me a plastic bag with my kids' three Easter totes in it. She sadly told me to take them to Denmark since she wouldn't see them on Easter anymore. I did as I was asked, and I stored them with the remaining Christmas and Halloween decorations in the basement of our rental home, thinking I might never really have a use for them either. It kills me to say it, but during this last-minute dash to make my 7-year-old happy, I was glad to have those little personalized tote bags. (Thanks, Mom.) I wadded up some packing paper to fill the bottoms, then I shredded my local paper, the Rudersdal Avis, into Easter grass strips with a pair of scissors and arranged them as best I could.

I even remembered to put them out in the living room before I went to sleep!

I was worried they would be disappointed at the meager offering, but Harrison was very happy. Kaden and Khloe were as happy as teens digging groceries and practical gifts out of a cutesy tote can be, so I'm glad I put in a little effort.

I was also wondering if Harrison actually believes in the Easter Bunny still, or if he would think it was suspicious that all of the basket goodies clearly came from Føtex, or if he would recognize the packing paper from our basement, or if he would see that the Easter grass was just our shredded newspaper from last week, but I think his childlike wonder blinds him to those kinds of details, and he just rolls with the magic.

Back to Danish Easter:

The meal tradition is fairly similar too - in both countries, disgusting foods are served at a weird time of day. (I guess if you know me well, you know Easter food is my absolute least favorite, and if you don't know me well, now you know it, too.)

In the U.S., we normally ate ham and deviled eggs. The only redeeming thing about the meal is that my Grandma Iris would usually bring out a delicious angel food cake at the end of it all, so that carried me.

In Denmark, I have been told that lamb, pickled herring, and liver paste are all traditionally eaten on Easter. The lamb the canteen served for our Easter meal before we went on holiday was very tender (I did TRY a little piece), but I don't think I need to go out of my way to eat lamb again. I also do not like pickled herring, and while I haven't yet tried the liver paste, I don't anticipate it being one of my favorite foods.

The third Easter tradition I've seen here is that people deliver these little secret letters to their friends and family that look like paper snowflakes. They are called gækkebreve and you write a funny rhyming poem in the middle and then sign your name by putting a dot for every letter in your name rather than letters. Then you fold it up and deliver it with a snowdrop flower to the recipient. The recipient has to guess who gave it to them, and if they guess correctly, you have to give them a chocolate Easter egg, and if they guess incorrectly, they have to give you one.

It's a cute tradition that I just don't think I was prepared for this year, but maybe I'll come up with a really good little poem and deliver a few next year!

Finally, people decorate the insides of their homes with fresh spring flowers for Easter. Harrison took care of that for me: When we got home from London, he had picked me flowers from the beds outside, and this beautiful hyacinth is keeping the living room and kitchen very fragrant and spring-like.

Some Danes go to church on Easter Sunday, but as I've mentioned before, not a lot of Danes are church-goers, so it's actually more common for Danes to go on a trip to their summer houses.

Many Danes have summer houses or co-own summer houses with their family members. The summer houses aren't grand, opulent lake homes like you might imagine a summer home in the U.S. Instead, they are usually older, small farmhouses in remote areas of Denmark near the sea or something. Just a place to hang out and be together, really. 

In Denmark, the Thursday and Friday before Easter are holidays, as is the Monday after Easter, so Danes get five days off in a row at this time. Some of my colleagues were going to meet family at their summer houses during the break. Some were taking a family trip to Sweden to go skiing for the last time this season. Others were just having Påskefrokost (Easter lunch) with friends and family today.

We relaxed and ate candy. The big boys played video games. I wrote a blog post about London (and this one). Khloe took the dog for a walk and played games with Harrison. Zac and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. He made BLTs for dinner. Harrison played pretend outside and tried to carve a stick with a wooden pickaxe. It was a nice day.