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DANISH TRADITIONS

How Halloween scared off Fastelavn to become Denmark’s favourite fancy dress day

Fastelavn is traditionally the biggest fancy-dress day on Denmark’s calendar, but recent years have seen it challenged by American custom Halloween.

How Halloween scared off Fastelavn to become Denmark’s favourite fancy dress day
Halloween decorations in Copenhagen in 2019. Photo: Ida Guldbæk Arentsen/Ritzau Scanpix

Pumpkins and ghosts have captured the imagination of Danish kids, leaving the barrel-smashing, cat-liberating February fancy dress fest of Fastelavn behind.

Although Halloween is generally considered a tradition with American origins, it’s actually European, and is thought to have its roots in Celtic customs up to 2,000 years old.

In Ireland, offers were made to Celtic gods and the dead, and scary-looking lamps were carved out of beets – setting the tradition for today’s pumpkins.

Conversion to Christianity later saw the Celtic tradition combined with All Saints Day – the result was Hallow’s Evening or Hallowe’en.

The tradition was largely imported to the United States by Irish immigrants in the 19th century.

Although Halloween is one of the biggest annual celebrations in the US, it has been slow to catch on in many European countries which celebrate All Saints Day – or in the case of the United Kingdom, Guy Fawkes’ Night – at the same time of year.

That has also been the case in Denmark. Although the country does not have a tradition for celebrating All Saints Day due to the predominance of the Lutheran Church of Denmark, kids have traditionally had the chance to dress up and win sweet-tasting treats in February, during Fastelavn.

READ ALSO: Fastelavn: What’s the Danish kids’ carnival all about?

As such, Halloween did not really register in Denmark until around the turn of the century.

In 1999, toy store chain Fætter BR began selling Halloween costumes, contemporary reports from broadcaster DR show.

Almost half of all families with children in Denmark now buy sweets or candy at Halloween, according to DR.

That has given a boost to the country’s pumpkin farmers, who have seen sales double over the last ten years.

“Trick or treat” can be rendered as the somewhat clunky, and no less aggressive, slik eller trylleri, ellers er dit liv forbi (“candy or magic, or your life is over!”) and can be heard on Danish doorsteps on October 31st. You might also hear the more simple slik eller ballade! (“sweets or trouble!”).

More people in Denmark now purchase fancy dress costumes for Halloween than they do for Fastelavn, according to sales figures from supermarket company Coop reported by DR.

Coop’s sales of fancy dress costumes for Fastelavn have been on a downward curve since 2011, and were overtaken by sales for Halloween in 2007.

The supermarket group now sells three times as many costumes for Halloween compared to Fastelavn, DR reported in 2019.

Halloween is not the only American tradition becoming a firm feature in Denmark. Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day have also been successfully transplanted into the Danish calendar, DR notes.

The timing of Halloween also benefits stores, which can sell items for the day at a time of the year when a lack of other events makes it ideal for promotion.

READ ALSO: Drones find 40,000 pumpkins on Danish farm

Article originally published in 2019.

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DANISH TRADITIONS

Why is Maundy Thursday a holiday in Denmark and Norway but not in Sweden?

People in Denmark and Norway have the day off on Maundy Thursday, but people in Sweden still have to work. Why is this?

Why is Maundy Thursday a holiday in Denmark and Norway but not in Sweden?

Maundy Thursday marks the Last Supper, the day when Jesus was betrayed by his disciple Judas at a Passover meal, and depending on whether you’re speaking Swedish, Danish or Norwegian, It is known as skärtorsdagen, skærtorsdag, or skjærtorsdag.

Historically, it has also been called “Shere” or “Shere Thursday” in English with all four words “sheer”, meaning “clean” or “bright”. 

In the Nordics, whether or not it is a public holiday not depends on where you are: workers in Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands get the day off, but those in Sweden and Finland don’t.

The difference goes back to Sweden’s split from Denmark with the breakup of the Kalmar Union in 1523, and then the different ways the two countries carried out the Reformation and the establishment of their respective Lutheran churches. 

When Denmark’s King Christian III defeated his Roman Catholic rival in 1536, he imposed a far-reaching Reformation of the Church in Denmark, initially going much further in abolishing public holidays than anything that happened in Sweden. 

“Denmark carried out a much more extensive reduction of public holidays in connection with the Reformation,” Göran Malmstedt, a history professor at Gothenburg University, told The Local. “In Denmark, the king decided in 1537 that only 16 of the many medieval public holidays would be preserved, while in Sweden almost twice as many public holidays were retained through the decision in the Church Order of 1571.”

It wasn’t until 200 years later, that Sweden’s Enlightenment monarch, Gustav III decided to follow Denmark’s austere approach, axing 20 public holidays, Maundy Thursday included, in the calendar reform known in Sweden as den stora helgdöden, or “the big public holiday slaughter”.

Other public holidays to get abolished included the third and fourth days of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, ten days celebrating Jesus’ apostles, and the three days leading up to Ascension Day. 

“It was only when Gustav III decided in 1772 to abolish several of the old public holidays that the church year here came to resemble the Danish one,” Malmstedt said. 

At the time Finland was simply a part of Sweden (albeit one with a lot of Finnish speakers). The other Nordic countries, on the other hand, were all part of the rival Denmark-Norway. 

So if you live in the Nordics and are having to work on Maundy Thursday, now you know who to blame.  

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