Fastelavn

Dressed up children engaged in "slå katten af tønden" (Denmark 1937).

Traditional events include slå katten af tønden ("hit the cat out of the barrel"), which is somewhat similar to using a piñata. The Danes use a wooden barrel, which is full of candy and sometimes oranges and has the image of a cat on it. After the candy pours out, the game continues until the entire barrel is broken. The one who knocks down the bottom of the barrel (making all the candy spill out) becomes kattedronning ("queen of cats"); the one who knocks down the last piece of the barrel becomes kattekonge ("king of cats").[5]

In Denmark, the barrel tradition has been practised for centuries, possibly introduced by Dutch immigrants to Copenhagen during the reign of Christian II of Denmark in the early 1500s. Historically, there was a real cat in the barrel, and beating the barrel was superstitiously considered a safeguard against evil. It was practised up until the 1800s, with the last known event occurring in the 1880s. The cat was not killed, but allowed to escape when the barrel was broken. The practise also used to be popular in Holland and similar events were known from Germany, called "Katzenschlagen".[6]

A popular children's song in Denmark is:

Original Danish Fastelavn er mit navn, boller vil jeg have. Hvis jeg ingen boller får, så laver jeg ballade. Boller op, boller ned boller i min mave. Hvis jeg ingen boller får, så laver jeg ballade.

English translation: Shrovetide is my name, buns I want. If I get no buns, then I make trouble. Buns up, buns down buns in my tummy. If I get no buns, then I make trouble.

Fastelavn song

The song is sung on various occasions related to Fastelavn, but mostly by costumed children, walking door to door, as a form of trick-or-treat. Even though the song relates to Fastelavnsboller, candy or money is usually offered to the kids when they sing.

Danish fastelavnsboller

In Denmark and Norway a popular baked good associated with Fastelavn is the fastelavnsbolle (lit. "Fastelavn bun", also known in English as "shrovetide bun" or "lenten bun"), a round sweet roll of various sorts usually covered with icing and sometimes filled with a whipped cream mix or pastry cream. In most bakeries they are up for sale throughout the whole month of February.

Similar buns are eaten in other Northern European countries, for example the Swedish Semla.

There seem to be some small local traditions which are closer to the carnival traditions of other countries, including Ash Wednesday, Carnival parades, Pancake Tuesday and eating special food after Ash Wednesday, but they are not particular to Danish culture.

Fastelavnsris

Another popular custom (especially among the children) is the "fastelavnsris", with which children ritually flog their parents to wake them up on the morning of Fastelavns Sunday (Quinquagesima).

Fastelavnsris have many shapes and forms and differ from area to area. In some areas they are bunches of twigs, usually from fruit trees and preferably with buds. Those are often decorated with feathers, egg-shells, storks and little figures of babies. In other areas, they are a bent willow-branch, shaped like an ankh and wound with crepe paper that has frizzles cut with scissors. Both varieties may be decorated with candy as well.

The custom was known in 18th century in Germany and it has several roots. It may originate from an old pagan fertility ritual, which has been absorbed into Christianity. The more serious one is that after the reformation, particularly pious people used to flog their children on Good Friday to remind them of the sufferings of Christ on the cross. A similar custom is mentioned in the book "Frauenzimmerlexicon", published in 1715 in Leipzig (Germany), which describes how bachelors and virgins "bid each other goodmorning" by flogging each other and spreading ashes on each other. This custom is also known in both Denmark and Norway.

Earlier, it was mainly the young women and the infertile who were flogged. It was also common that a young man would carry his "fastelavnsris" and gently strike at young women he met on the street. Later it became the children's special right to flog their parents on this day. In any case, the reward given for the flogging would be a fastelavnsbolle.

A Fastelavn procession (Denmark, mid 1800s).

Fastelavn processions are not practised on any notable scale anymore, but used to form an important part of the festivities for centuries in Denmark. Unmarried adults dressed up in costumes and visited houses of their choice across town. Here they teased, danced and gathered food and money for the Fastelavn celebration. If married people and the elderly wanted to take part in the festivities, they could put on costumes and visit friends to tease and have fun. These costume games were not liked by the Church and the authorities, and were outlawed in 1683; Brorson even wrote a psalm about abolishing the sinful Fastelavn. However, the costume games were popular among the common people and they continued to be practised nonetheless.[7] Today, groups of costumed children walk from door to door to sing and collect candy and small-change money.[8]

In Denmark, special boat processions were practised in coastal communities from at least the early 1700s and consisted of a regular wooden boat with wheels pushed through the streets accompanied by shouts and music. The boat was decorated, sometimes with mythological figures, and when it stopped on its route through town, onlookers were expected to feed a collection box for charity. The last boat processions died out in the 1970s.[9]