This blog is mainly intended to explain some of the Danish Christmas traditions, especially if you have experienced these and wondered "WTF, these Danes are weirder than allowed, they are eating duck for Christmas, not mentioning all the other food they eat. How do they stay so fit?".
It doesn't even help being Danish as to why we eat duck, and it was never explained to me either. It was not one of these things, where your dad took you to one side to explain the tradition behind the mighty duck feast. My dad just told us kids to eat what's being served. And, I was probably a lot more interested in the presents than the duck anyway.
To make matters even more complicated, not all Danish people eat duck! It depends where you live. People living in Copenhagen, the snobs, are more likely to eat Goose with silverware, whereas the culchies from Funen are more inclined to eat duck with wooden cutlery. So, I've decided to investigate this in more detail.
Some useless background information. In 2007 there were almost 250.000 wild ducks in Denmark. That's impressive, until you discover that there were 16 millions chickens. Who counted all these birds, and why, I do not know. Not interested in verifying the numbers by recounting, so I'll take their word for it.
In most countries, including Denmark, it is tradition to eat either turkey or ham (or both) for Christmas, served with gravy and spuds (potatoes). But, there's obvious a reason why some Danes eat duck, and here's the reason.
- this is not a trade secret or at the same level as Santa's existence, so you can share this knowledge with your friends.
The main reason behind the duck actually starts with another Danish tradition called Morten's Aften. Not sure how to translate that into English, other than calling it Morten's Evening. This tradition is symbolising the day where Morten was voted bishop in Germany, the 11th of November in or around 370 AD. Morten actually didn't want to become bishop, so he hid among the geese, but was discovered when the geese started to make a lot of noise.
What confuses me about this tradition is, why the hell the Danes adopted it? It is based on a Italian legionaries' son and when he got older founded monasteries in Germany. All around the time when the Danes were still clubbing each other and fighting off the Fenris Wolf.
Anyway, it should in fact be geese that is eaten on Morten's Aften instead of duck. Geese have always been slightly more expensive to buy, so I assume that poorer families couldn't afford to eat Goose for neither Morten's Aften or Christmas, and substituted it with duck. I guess you could compare it with buying Lidl products instead of more expansive brands such as M&S.
From what I can gather, and knowing the Danish mentality of simplicity (you see it with Danish designed furniture; simple, but fantastic), something similar happened for the Christmas dinner. Why reinvent the wheel, when we already know the duck is cheap and tastes nice? The working class still couldn't afford buying geese and bought ducks instead. Absolutely nothing wrong with this approach, as it tastes much nicer anyway.
You could go as far as to argue that the duck is the working class goose, and therefore the main dish for both Morten's Aften and Christmas.
Later, when people started to have more money, they started to add additional dishes to the Christmas dinner. Duck was no longer the main course only, but became part of the entire Christmas feast. Many Danish families eat duck, pork (crackling) roast, pork sausages, beet-root, white potatoes, brown (sugar coated) potatoes and not to forget ris al amande for dessert.
Now do you understand why some Danes have a little belly, especially around Christmas? Or, is our body shapes simply a result of living in a fast food, and eat more if you can, era?
- that's deep, I know.
Personally, I don't care why we eat duck. It simply tastes fantastic. I'm already looking forward to the next Christmas dinner. That's my reasons. Yours?
