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Launched in 2013, the “How to Live in Denmark” podcast is the longest-running podcast about living in Denmark in English. It covers every aspect of living in Denmark and Danish life, including moving to Denmark, adjusting to life in Denmark, Danish customs, Danish weather, Danish customs, and Danish people, all with gentle humor.

With nearly 150 short episodes, there is plenty to listen to as you pack for your move to Denmark, relax in your Danish summerhouse, or survive the long, dark Danish winter.

learn to be Danish
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark, The Danish Year

August, The first day of school, and how children learn to be Danish: The Danish Year Part 8

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.

August in Denmark is the beginning of fall. The summer strawberries disappear from the supermarket, the leaves start to turn brown on the trees, and the primary schools open again, after their usual brief six-week summer vacation.

This month some young Danes will be starting school for the very first time. They’re usually welcomed with a ceremony that includes Danish flags, speeches, and songs, and their parents, who take a lot of photos of the first day of school.

This was something I unfortunately didn’t know when my own daughter had her first day of school in Denmark. She’d already been going to playground classes there, so on the first official academic day I just dropped her off at school as if it were an ordinary day, and there nobody there to take her picture.

Such is being a foreigner and not knowing the local customs. She still brings it up to this day.

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August 9, 2025 by
The Daisy Route in Denmark
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark, The Danish Year

July, Nature in Denmark, and following The Daisy Route: The Danish Year Part 7

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.

July is vacation month in Denmark, and it’s ironic that many Danes go elsewhere on vacation at just this time of year, when you have the best chance of good weather in Denmark. And I do mean chance – there is never any guarantee.

Some Danes go abroad, driving vacations to Southern Europe are popular. There’s a well-known cycle in which the summer weather is good one year, so everyone plans a vacation in Denmark the following year, and then the weather is awful, so everyone plans a foreign vacation the next year, and then the weather is good, and so on.

You can surf in Denmark

Staying in Denmark, even if you don’t own one of the famous Danish summer houses, can be a great choice. There’s a surprising amount of nature to experience in this small, flat, country that isn’t as densely populated as the UK, or the Netherlands, or even Germany.

You can surf in Denmark, along the windy west coast, and when you’re done explore the ever-changing sand dunes. Maybe visit the little lighthouse that is slowly being swallowed up by the sand.

Hike through ancient forests

In Denmark you can hike through ancient forests, and even sleep there in some of the public forest shelters. Most of the forest shelters are big wooden boxes with one side entirely open, but with a roof to protect you from the rain.

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July 1, 2025 by
Denmark's National Day
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark, The Danish Year

June: Danish pride, women in uniform, and the reverse Jante Law: The Danish Year Part 6

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. This year 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.

June is a glorious month in Denmark, the sun has arrived but the mosquitos haven’t, and it is full of special days, from graduations to weddings to the midsummer festival of Sankt Hans, where Danes meet to sing traditional songs before a giant bonfire.

Danes love a good bonfire, and kids are generally introduced to them in kindergarten, where small children gather around the big open flame in their play clothes.

The Danish National Day

June also includes the closest Denmark gets to a national day, Constitution Day. The Danes are modest about this, there are no parades or fireworks or military fly-bys. A few politicians make speeches about how important the Constitution is, but many people don’t even get a day off work. And the Constitution has to share the day with Father’s Day in Denmark.

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June 2, 2025 by
old in Denmark
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark, The Danish Year

May, the Candle in the Window, and Getting Old in Denmark: The Danish Year Part 5

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. This year 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.

Getting the present to remember the past is always tricky business. All over the world, there are statues set up so that people will always remember that great man so-and-so. Most of the time when you ask a local – who is that a statue of? they say, I have no idea. These great men in their time now spend centuries having birds stand on their head.

The past is past, and memories don’t always persist.

So it is with a lovely May tradition in Denmark, setting a candle in the window on the night of May 4. This is to commemorate the surrender of the Germans and the end of the Nazi occupation in 1945.

The Nazis imposed a blackout on Denmark to confuse the Allied air forces, so now that they were defeated, a candle in a window became a small symbol of rebellious light.

A rememberance ceremony, forgotten

I intend to participate every year on May 4, but I often forget, and to be honest I see very few candles in windows these days.

You’d have to be aged 85 or older now to remember the war, and Germany is one of Denmark’s greatest friends and Allies.

In addition, the elderly who do remember the occupation and the blackout generally do not live with their families in Denmark, families to whom they might pass on the tradition.

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May 2, 2025 by
Paerdansk Pear Danish by Kay Xander Mellish
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark, The Danish Year

April, Gardening in Denmark, and what it means to be “Pear Danish”: The Danish Year Part 4

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.

As the long Danish winter finally draws to an end, it’s time for Danes to start planting their gardens.

Now, in early April, it’s rhubarb, parsnips, cabbage. After the risk of frost is gone, in late April, you can put down some beets, and chives, and parsley – all good traditional Danish food.

By May, you can try with the tomatoes, which may or may not ripen depending on whether you get a warm, sunny summer, always a roll of the dice in Denmark. One year we ended up with hard, green tomatoes in September.

The growing season in Denmark is short. If you miss the planting deadlines, you’re probably out of luck.

And even if you are in luck, the amount you spend at the garden center will far outstrip the amount it would take you to buy the same foods at the corner market.

Names that include “gaard”

But Danes love to garden, they love to touch the Earth. Denmark industrialized fairly late compared to the rest of Europe – really not until the late 19th century – and even then it focused on cooperative agriculture for export. Denmark is still known around the world for its butter and bacon.

Many Danes still carry the name of their family farm in the name they use today.

The Danish word for farm is “gaard”, so the names of jewelry designer Ole Lynggaard, or golfer Nicolai Højgaard, or politician Pia Kjærsgaard, all reference what was once the family farm, the “gaard”.

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April 3, 2025 by
Gækkebrev Danish traditions vs Digitalization
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark, The Danish Year

March, Gækkebreve, and the things lost in Digital Denmark: The Danish Year Part 3

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.

“Am I being threatened?”

An international professional newly arrived in Denmark asked me this when he received a note in his apartment building mailbox. Now, this alone is unusual in Denmark. Since everything went digital about 10 years ago, we get very little paper mail. I don’t think I’ve received anything in months.

But he had. He had received a carefully decorated envelope, illustrated with crayon, in which there was a single piece of white paper, cut into a kind of snowflake pattern.

It had some Danish writing on it, a few short lines, maybe a poem. And it wasn’t signed…there were just a few mysterious dots.

The man, a highly educated engineer, was concerned. “Am I going to be kidnapped?” he asked me. “Is this some kind of ransom note?”

Gækkebrev are an old tradition

No worries, he was safe. What he had just received was a gækkebrev, or gække letter, named after the vintergække flower that used to come with these letters in the 1800s.

GækkebrevGækkebreve arrive just before Easter, and they are always carefully cut from a single piece of paper, usually in an elaborate pattern. The poems are usually standard, copied from a book, and they are anonymous, but the mysterious dots they are signed with correspond to the number of letters in the sender’s name.

So if I sent you a gækkebrev, I would sign it with three dots, for K-A-Y.

If you can guess who sent the letter, I owe you a chocolate Easter egg. If you can’t then you owe ME a chocolate Easter egg.

Thus, gækkebreve are very popular with small children looking for candy.

My guess was that maybe this engineer had a young child or young neighbor who might have made this at school. And he did.

Traditions vs. digitalization

Gækkebreve are a great Danish tradition, but like many other Danish traditions, they are fighting with the country’s ambitious digital agenda.

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March 5, 2025 by
cat in the barrel festelavn Denmark Mardi Gras
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark, The Danish Year

February, The Cat in the Barrel and the Absence of Faith: The Danish Year Part 2

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.

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February 11, 2025 by
Income inequality Denmark
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark, The Danish Year

January, Skiing, and Income Inequality: The Danish Year Part 1

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.

January is part of the dark times in Denmark. Usually the sun comes up around 830 and is gone by 430.

If you work in an office all day, you might not see it at all.

And if you’re part of the bottom 80% of Danish earners, you’ll probably spend most of your dark January evenings and weekends at home, hoping your bank account can recover from the Christmas excesses.

Restaurants have a lot of empty tables this time of year. Shops mostly process the return of unwanted Christmas presents.

Now, this can and often is packaged as hygge. Candles, TV, sweaters, warm slippers, hot tea. But it’s often just being broke and not being able to go anywhere.

The rich go skiing

Yet if you’re part of the top 20% of earners in Denmark, maybe even the top 10%, January is the time to go skiing.

Not in Denmark, which doesn’t have any mountains for downhill skiing, or enough snow for cross-country skiing. You go to Sweden for cheap skiing, Norway for slightly more expensive skiing, or to France or Switzerland for luxury skiing where you can show off your Rolex Explorer wristwatch on the slopes.

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January 29, 2025 by
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark

The Danish Empire – without Greenland?

Denmark, as Danes like to tell you, is a little country. But it used to be a much bigger country, a bit of an empire.

Norway was once part of Denmark. Iceland was once part of Denmark. The southern half of Sweden and a bit of northern Germany used to be part of Denmark. What is now called the US Virgin Islands used to be part of Denmark.

And Denmark had colonies in Africa and India, which is why when you’ll go into many Danish supermarkets – even online supermarkets – you’ll see a section called Kolonial, or Colonial.

It features long-life products, like spices and nuts, that used to come from trading posts in the faraway Danish colonies.

Royals in folk costumes

Over time, through war losses and independence movements, the Danish Empire shrank…and today we’re going to talk about how it might shrink further.

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January 4, 2025 by
Podcasts, Stories about life in Denmark

Learning Danish through song lyrics

One of the first gifts I received in Denmark was a CD by a singer called Carsten Lykke. “I think you’ll like this,” said one of my first Danish friends.

And I did – even though I didn’t speak much Danish at the time, Carsten Lykke’s lyrics made me laugh. A small, awkward guy, who was at that time best known as the leader of a Blur or Pulp-style band called the Ibens, Carsten’s solo work mostly involves him making fun of himself and his treacherous relationship with his mother.

His big hit involved a fantasy of being married to then-Crown Prince Frederik (“If Frederik was into men, I’d be Queen right now”) He’s willing to laugh at the Danish Jante Law, the unwritten rule against celebrating status or success, with songs like “I burde gi’ mig bank“, the chorus of which is, “I’m so successful, you ought to punch me.”

At any rate, I learned a great deal of colloquial Danish from that CD, so much I didn’t realize it until Carsten Lykke, now in his mid-50s, put out a new single earlier this year. I cued up all his old stuff again.

I still remembered almost every line.

Find a Danish lyricist you enjoy

That’s why one of the tips I give to newcomers in Denmark is learning Danish through song lyrics. Find a Danish lyricist who writes songs you enjoy listening to, again and again.

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October 2, 2024 by