KNOWING ABOUT THIS..

DECEMBER 27: Do you know the TV station EURONEWS ?   Perhaps not ?    This is a European TV station, which was created in 1993. Its main purpose is to broadcast news from all over the world – seen from a European, not from a national perspective. I was myself during my time as director of communications in the EU Commission actively involved in supporting and promoting this independent station. It has played and still plays a very important role in presenting news and background analysis of topics of importance to the whole of Europe. You can see it for FREE.   Perhaps it is also on the TV cable network you subscribe to. You can also see it live or recorded on your computer or smart phone on this web address: https://www.euronews.com/live You can also for free download the EURONEWS app on your phone and/or your computer.   EURONEWS is simultaneously and almost around the clock broadcasting in 13 different languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, G

DECEMBER 24: Christmas in Denmark     -   The most important traditions in a nutshell A very good thing about Christmas is that you do not get fat from the food and drinks you have between Christmas and New Year!  It’s the period between New Year and Christmas, which is dangerous! But let’s look at the most typical Danish traditions for this time of the year. Advent    is celebrated from the fourth Sunday before Christmas – normally very late November or very early December. Almost every home has an Advent Wreath with four white candles. The first Sunday one candle is lit. The second Sunday two candles are in use. And so on. There are no special festivities related to advent – apart  from the church services, which mark the start of the new church year.   December 24  is by far the most important day in the Danish Christmas .  The day of Christmas Eve.    The special  Christmas church service  is in the afternoon. Almost everybody goes to church on that day – not only the ver

DECEMBER 3: On Sunday, December 6, Romania will have parliamentary elections.   This is a good occasion to tell a bit about that country. Its size is 238.000 sq.km – about half the size of Spain.   It has 20 million inhabitants. This includes a Hungarian-speaking minority of 1,2 million and a small German-speaking minority of 36.000 persons.   Before World War II about 800.000 German-speakers lived in Romania, but many of the emigrated to Germany and elsewhere.    There are about 3,4 million Romanians living in the OECD countries. Romania’s present president, Klaus Iohannis, comes from the German-speaking minority. He was also chairman of the liberal party. The country has borders with Bulgaria to the south, with Serbia to the west, Hungary to the north and Ukraine and Moldovia to the east. Romania became a member of EU in 2004. It is still not a member of the Schengen-cooperation or of the EURO area.   But it will join both, when it fulfils the criteria.   The country also b

  DECEMBER 2: Today I want briefly to tell about the Danish word HYGGE !   Why ?   Because I got inspired by Belgian television news ( RTBF ).   A couple of days ago we almost spilled our apéro on the floor, when we heard the speaker say: HYGGE !    She told us that she as a Francophone speaker had used a lot of time to learn have to pronounce the word properly!   This is difficult for French speaking persons.   But she absolutely got it right.   Then her news presented and explained HYGGE during a few minutes.   The did it for 2 reasons:   they wanted to explain their viewers how to spend our present lockdown time in a better way – with HYGGE.   And they also told us that a new Danish hotel called HYGGE HOTEL has started in the centre of Brussels – not far from Place Louise.   It has 60 rooms and looks very nice and Scandinavian.   Have a look – at least on its website:    https://hotelhygge.be Now, what is then HYGGE ?   It is a word for “ a mood of coziness and comfortable convi

DECEMBER 1: Where does the name December come from? And what is linked to this month? The name December comes from the word decem. This is the Latin name for the figure ten . The reason is that this month was the 10 th month in the old Roman calendar, which originally was made by king Numa Pompilius around 500 BC. In this calendar March was the first month in the year. This calendar was many centuries later replaced by the Gregorian calendar, where January is the first month of each year and where December consequently is month no. 12. This calendar was introduced from around 1580. It Denmark it happened in the year 1700. In the old days this month was in Denmark ( and the other Nordic countries, I believe ) called KRISTMÅNED ( CHRIST MONTH ).   Or CHRISTMAS MONTH. There are several old Danish weather warnings for the month of December: ·        A cold December with lots of snow will often mean that the next summer will be very good and fertile ·        If December is ve