Food

When it comes to eating, the Danes have similar habits to the British: breakfast in a hurry, a packed lunch at school or work and a larger meal in the evenings. However, for the evening meal families make a real effort to get together and eat at home. Much of the food is similar to what we eat in Britain too, although there are some traditional dishes that aren’t so familiar.

Smørrebrød are open sandwiches consisting of rye bread, buttered and covered with a variety of toppings. Some of the toppings are pretty normal; sliced meat, cheese and salad. Others sound a bit more unusual to us; shrimps, smoked salmon, marinated herring, smoked eel with scrambled egg, pork with red cabbage and even apples and prunes!

Other Danish specialities tend to be cakes and pastries: kransekage are almond cake rings, æblekage is fried apple in breadcrumbs, and wienerbrød is the well known Danish Pastry. Danish towns and cities have lots of bakeries selling a mouth-watering selection of cakes and pastries - the Danes must have a very sweet tooth!


Hygge

The Danes are generally very relaxed people, and the way they live is best described by the idea of hygge. Translated into English, this means ‘cosy and snug’. For the Danes it means shutting out the troubles of the outside world and enjoying a warm, comfortable and relaxing time at home. Danish people are very sociable, and will often invite people to their house for meals in the evening. The greatest compliment a guest can give their host is to thank them for a cosy evening!


Sport

When they’re not warm and cosy at home, the Danes love to be out watching and playing sports. About half of the population are members of sport clubs and associations, and two thirds of children play organised sports outside of school. Even the smallest village has at least one football field and a gymnasium or sports hall. Boys generally play football, handball and badminton, while girls generally prefer gymnastics, riding, handball and swimming. Danish children start playing sports at a local level from as young as 5-6 years old, both for fun and in competitions. Some start even earlier, doing gymnastics with their mother or father.

Sports are compulsory in schools, and some schools even offer special courses concentrating on a particular sport. When someone has finished their compulsory schooling, they can take one of these courses to learn more about physical activity and exercise with instruction by specialist coaches.

Denmark has about 7,000km of coastline, so it’s no surprise that the Danes love water sports. As well as doing sports like yachting, rowing, canoeing and swimming for fun, the Danes are also very successful in competitions like the Olympic Games and World Championships. Denmark has won 175 Gold Medals in yachting in the past 100 years, and one of the most successful Danish sportsmen ever is Paul Elvstrøm, who won four successive Olympic gold medals for yachting from 1948-1960. He inspires many Danes to take up yachting themselves.

In Denmark sport isn’t only seen as a way of staying fit: through the many clubs and associations, sport is also a way of meeting new friends and enjoying yourself. This is a great way of encouraging people to get involved – there are lots of budding young Peter Schmeichels out there!

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