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DANISH WORD OF THE DAY

Danish word of the day: Påske

Today’s Danish word of the day is one you should hear a lot this Easter, but you probably don’t recognise it from English.

Published: 26 March 2024 16:44 CET

Danish word of the day: Påske

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash and Nicolas Raymond/FlickR

What is påske?

The Danish word for Easter, påske, may well be recognisable to you if you speak another European language.

Unlike in English, but like other Danish words for festivals, months, and weekdays, it isn’t capitalised.

It’s a relative of French Pâques, Italian Pasqua, Spanish Pascua, Romanian Paşti and Dutch Pasen, to name a few.

These words all date back to the Greek word Πάσχα (Pascha), which is linked to the Hebrew word Pesach meaning “to pass over”. The word pascha was adopted by Latin as the name of the Christian holiday, which became páskar in Old Norse.

Why do I need to know påske?

Although the English name Easter has a different origin (from Ēostre, the name of a goddess linked with springtime), you will still find relatives of påsk in English dialects, including Pace in Scotland and northeastern England, and Pask in Cornish.

So now that you know where the word comes from, how to use it?

Happy Easter is god påske, and you will also find it in lots of festive compound words: påskeferien (the Easter holiday), påskeæg (Easter egg), påskefrokost (Easter lunch), and påskehare (Easter bunny).

This year, Easter falls earlier than usual with Easter Sunday on March 31st.

Examples

Fejrer du påske?

Do you celebrate Easter?

Påskeharen har lagt et påskeæg

The Easter bunny has left an Easter egg

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Danish word of the day: Pædagog

What is pædagog?

A pædagog is someone who works within the field of pedagogy, a term which exists in English (but may not be widely known) and refers to the theory and practice of teaching and learning.

In Danish, pedagogy is pædagogik and someone who is trained in that profession is a pædagog.

This doesn’t really come close to covering how the word is used in Danish, however, where it refers to a range of different jobs, all crucial to the smooth running of everyday society.

Why do I need to know pædagog?

Beyond the dictionary definition of “person who is trained to work in pedagogical occupation with children, young or disabled people”, there’s a good number of compound words that include pædagog.

These compound words are mostly job titles and demonstrate the different specialisations and roles in which you can work as a pædagog.

These include småbørnspædagog for those who take care of small children, børnehavepædagog for the trained childcare staff at kindergartens, and socialpædagog for people who work with adults with special social needs.

To become a pædagog you must complete the pædagoguddannelse, the professional training for the rule, which is a three-and-a-half year vocational degree involving work placements and a certain degree of specialisation.

Untrained staff who work in kindergartens can take the job title pædagogmedhjælper, literally “pedagog helper”, and often fulfil many of the same duties, particularly those relating to the care, compassion and supervision needed to look after a group of children.

Denmark has a high provision of childcare, with kindergarten fees subsidised by local authorities – up to 80 percent of one-year-olds attended childcare institutions in 2022 with that figure rising to 97 percent for five-year-olds, according to national figures.

That may give you an idea of how many skilled childcare professionals Denmark needs and why a word that has a niche, technical meaning in English is so common in Danish.

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