Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1941-12-25
Christmas
Tradition
By Karen Vibeke Bailey
(From Christmas Chimes,
December, 1870


December, 1937)
Some years ago, when I spent foul
months in America and there me
several Danish families beside some
of my own relations, it struck me
again and again, that 1 really wa.
out for the same problems as many
of you are. I am married to ar
Englishman and we have three chill
dren. How are those children 60
ing to be brought up? They are
English citizens and, as far as know
they are going to live the rest of theil
life in England. But naturally, as
Dane feel that I have been giver
so much of what is best in Danish
life that my children also must share
in some of the things given and re-
ceived from generation to generation
But the very last l should want the
children to become is what we in
Denmark call "rodlos''. 1 want tc
give them some of Denmark's special
treasures, but not in such a way
that it makes them feel homeless in
their own country.
And where can one better bring
them into touch with Danish tradi-
tons than at Christmas time? Here
in England as with you in America
Christmas does not begin before
Christmas day. But in our home i,
begins Christmas eve as in Denmark
and there is service in the Danish
church in London that evening.
said it began Christmas eve, but
what about all the hundreds of prep
arations in one way or the other?
They start long before, and how the
children love them, and their small
English friends no less. More than
once have heard little English
girl sigh: ooh, why don't we do all
these things? Couldn't we just pre-
tend we were Danish for once?"
Let me tell you about some few
of our preparations, which by now
have become tradition in our home.
Some of you certainly know them,
others may not, and if you have chill
dren, do take them up in your home
For quite apart from their Danish
association they do their great part
in creating homelife, and don't we
all need that whether we live in
Europe or in America?
When we come home from church
the first Sunday in Advent, there is
always certain peacefulness and ex-
pectation in the air, for the children
know that that evening the first
candle in the advent Basketball
ventskurven-will be lighted and we
will sing some of our lovely Danish
Advent and Christmas hymns. A
little flower basket is decorated with
pieces of shrub, ivy, fern, and with
flowers, whatever one can find in
winters day in the garden or the
fields, and in the center of the bas-
ket four candles are placed. In some
homes in Denmark they bind wreath
of fir branches, which hangs down
from the ceiling with the four candles
on it. The first Sunday in Advent the
first candle only is lighted at dusk
which the children generally choose
themselves. That candle is lighted
every evening until the second Sum
day in Advent, when the second
candle is lighted, and now there are
two candles lighted every evening
until the third one is lighted on the
third Sunday in Advent, and when
we come to the fourth Sunday and
all four candles are lighted, there is
tremendous excitement amongst the
for now they know that
Christmas eve with the Christmas tree
and its many candles is not far off.
'Lillejuleaften", the evening before
Christmas eve, the Advent basket is
put up in the loft and there is hidden
as good friend till next year.
That peaceful gathering at dusk
during the four weeks is valuable
far beyond childhood, and then it
gives an opportunity for parents to
teach the children the Danish Christ
mas hymns.-And do not translate
them into English, for they lose their
life. However little Danish the chill
dren talk, they never mind singing in
Danish.
There are other things, less valu-
able, but they have become a tradi-
ton; and whether the children are
small or big, they are equally eager
to have the 'Nissetable" out fort
night before Christmas They know
the part the Misses played in old
days in peoples household: How a
dish of steaming rice pudding was
always put out in the stable Christ
mas eve for the Misses. For it was
most important that they continued
to be good friends with the inhabi-
tants; and on holy evening like
that they were certainly not to starve.
The dish was empty the next morn
ing when the farmer came out. A
better proof could surely not be
found for the existence of those
friends. That our modern time has
destroyed this belief and that the
tradition now has become mechan-
lied in SO far as an artificial atmos-
phere is created, is perhaps sad.
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