I’ve referred to “The Danish Year” before on How to Live in Denmark. It’s a series of events that are simply expected to happen every year in Denmark, even if they aren’t formal holidays. In 2025 I’m going to try to do a podcast every month about aspects of the Danish year, and how they fit into the overall context of where Denmark is coming from, and where it’s going.
Put a cat in a barrel.
Hang up the barrel, maybe from a tree.
And then hit the barrel, with a stick. Hard, until the barrel breaks and the cat runs away.
It doesn’t sound very nice, but that’s the way Danes used to celebrate Fastelavn, which is the Danish version of Carnival, or Mardi Gras.
These days the Danes are great fans of animal rights, and often the drivers of animal rights laws in the European Union.
But back in the day, “hitting the cat in the barrel” was the way that superstitious Danes tried to ward off evil. That poor cat.
Cat in the barrel for children
Fast forward to today, the barrel is still part of the event, and so is the stick, but the cat is long gone.
Now “hitting the cat in a barrel” is something that Danish children do.
The barrel contains candy, and when the child with the biggest swing breaks it open, the candy spills all over the floor, a bit like a piñata.
All the children run to collect their share, and the kid who broke it open is named the Cat King or Cat Queen. They get a paper crown to wear for the rest of the party.
Fastelavn is one of the Danes’ favorite holidays. It takes place in February, when the light is finally beginning to come back after a long season of winter darkness.
The kids dress up in cute costumes, and sometimes they rasle or ask neighbors for treats.
Messy custard buns
One of the things they ask for a Fastelavn bun, which is a kind of pastry.
Pastry and cake are always a critical part of Danish culture.
Fastelavn buns are a light, flaky pastry full of custard, topped off with frosting in various colors. I noticed that a chef quoted by the BBC said they were beautiful to look at, but ugly to eat.
And that’s true. Don’t wear anything that needs to be dry cleaned when you eat a fastelavn bun. That custard explodes all over the place. Oof.
Anyway, you can generate a deal of small talk with Danes out of which local bakery makes the best Fastelavn bun, and what type of stratospheric prices they charge for it.
Keep the party, dump the religion
What you will not have is a conversation about the meaning of Fastelavn, which according to tradition is a day to celebrate wildly before the 40-day lockdown for Lent.
The Danes have kept the party while stripping away its religious background, much like the non-firmations some Danes choose over confirmations, or the “namegiving ceremonies” that have replaced baptisms in some circles.
The fasting time
Lent is traditionally a solemn period, of reflection. You are supposed to use the time to think about all the bad things you’ve done, and repent.
But not in Denmark, where Lent is pretty much ignored.
So ignored that after two decades of speaking Danish, I had to look up the Danish word for it. It’s Fastetiden, or the Fasting Time…but I’ve never met a Danish Christian who fasted during the period.
Safer societies are less religious
I once read that the safer a society is, the less likely it is to be religious. The more comfortable and secure people are, the less likely they are to turn to a higher power to sort things out.
That’s certainly true in Denmark.
The majority of Danes find religious faith strange, and perhaps a sign of ignorance or moral weakness. I have had Danes tell me that believing in God is like believing in Santa Claus.
Generally, they are not a spiritual people. They are practical people. If they do any spiritual practice at all, it’s generally meditation or mindfulness, and usually alone.
Danes do attend church together on Christmas Eve, or for cultural celebrations like baptisms, or confirmations, or weddings, or sometimes funerals.
Suspicious of religious people
But if you tell Danes that you go to church on a regular basis because you like it, they will suddenly become very suspicious, and maybe a little angry.
They may assume you have backward views, that you don’t like gay people, perhaps that you believe that women should be subservient.
Or maybe that you don’t drink alcohol, which is a serious charge in Denmark.
Other religions don’t fare much better in their estimation, although they’re less likely to directly insult a Hindu or a Buddhist, in particular if they’re trying to recruit them for a hard-to-fill technical position.
People with no faith are the outliers
What is ironic is that many Danes and other Western Europeans see themselves as internationalists, as citizens of the world.
But most citizens of the world are in fact religious or at least spiritual. It’s the people with no faith at all who are the outliers.
Anyway, this year some people in Denmark will indeed be fasting during lent.
They are Danish Muslims. This year, Lent falls at the same time as Ramadan.
