Christmas in Denmark

Merry Christmas, y’all.

Steen has been keeping me supplied with seasonal photographs from Denmark. Yesterday he went to a Juleaften (Christmas Eve) service at Tibirke Kirke. Here’s a brief video he took of part of the service:


Steen has this to say about the video:

It’s dark because there were only candle lights in the church — and the organ is too loud because I moved to the back of the church next to the small organ.

We sang six psalms — three times. It took a toll on my voice.

The tune used in the video is clearly the one I’ve always known as “The Crusaders’ Hymn”. The words are in Danish, but I assume the congregation is singing one of the psalms to that tune.

Steen sent photos as well, and through the magic of digital enhancement I’ve brightened up this photo taken inside Tibirke Kirke during the service:


It’s a tradition at Snaphanen to post Christmas-season photos of Copenhagen. The one below shows night-time skating at the rink in Kongens Nytorv (literally, “The King’s New Square”):


Here’s another view of the same square in the daytime:


This is what Steen had to say about the square:

All those houses round the Kongens Nytorv are buildings from the 1600s. They are all treated as though they were built only last year.

And what about the guards in the tall hats marching by in the foreground?

Those are Den Kongelige Livgarde, the Royal Life Guards. They just happened to be there. They always march from the barracks to the castle, every day at 11:00am.

Notice the length of the shadows in the photo. Assuming that the Royal Life Guards are punctual, it was taken just an hour before high noon. The fact that the sun can be so close to the horizon in the middle of the day is a reminder of how far north Denmark is.

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Dymphna’s Christmas present to me was level 1 of an intensive course in the Danish language put out by Rosetta Stone. It comes on two DVDs, and once installed on my computer, it will teach me Danish with full audiovisual assistance using a microphone/headphone setup.

So, finally, I will learn to talk like my mouth is full of cake batter! But will Steen be able to understand me?

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Did you think I would get through an entire post without any jihad references? Not likely!

Below the jump (because he’s not PG-13) is Ahmed the Dead Terrorist’s Christmas Show:
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Once again, the hat tip goes out to Steen for this one.

Go easy on the eggnog. See you tomorrow.