When I started all this inter-cultural stuff about four years ago, I made a collection of photographs which to me epitomise Denmark. One of them is of a bonfire. The Danes say ‘Oh yes, midsummer’ but I then tell them that it means more than that. I chose the picture because to me it signifies the Danish love affair with the naked flame. A stately home near us regularly has romantic nights in the summer where they open up in the evening and the whole house is lit by candlelight as it would have been in it’s heyday. The evening is rounded off by a firework display in the grounds. No special occasion is complete without a candle, Danes had the second highest percentage of smokers in the pre-2004 EU (Greece since you ask), wood burning stoves are normal means of heating and at Christmas time there are always a few house fires due to the live candles placed on the Christmas tree. Advent candles are everywhere in shops, schools and work places, candles are placed in shop displays and torches are placed at an angle both sides of the shop entrance.
So you won’t be surprised to learn that every classroom in Gwen and Mia’s school has matches, (you never know when you will need to light a bonfire or a candle after all) and Gwen came home yesterday announcing that she will take a night light in decorative holder to school because it is allowed to have one on your desk during the school day in December and despite the fact that she is scared rigid by candles. One boy in the class has been banned from this privilege but I have mentioned him before. So he goes round blowing all the other kids candles out. … as long as that is all that he does!