KNOWING ABOUT THIS..

MY VERY FIRST SCHOOL DAY -  April 2, 1952: Today ( April 2, 2021 )   it is exactly 69 – sixtynine – years ago, since I started going to school. This is a long time ago. It was in 1952. But I still remember it, as if it were yesterday. Can you understand that ? It was a wonderful, sunny morning.   I had for such a long time been looking forward to going to school.   Ok, I could already read and I could also write reasonably.   But I wanted to learn much more. And quickly! I knew that we were 4 kids in our village, who should start that day. Two girls and two boys. I knew the other three well. Remember, we lived in a small country village, where everybody knew everybody. The first school day was always sort of a party to us.   Our parents came along to the school on that first day. And we all had put our nicest clothes on, of course. Our farm was about 1 ½ km from the school.   We walked there, my parents and I.   On the way I could...

April 1 is the day when it is allowed to cheat other people. It is called “ Fools Day ”.  The tradition comes from Germany in the 17 th century. It came to Denmark from the very beginning. Some researchers think that it goes much further back to pre-historic times, and that it had something to do with fertility rituals. In the other Nordic countries the corresponding expression is a Majkat  ( a May cat ). Those are people, who let them be cheated on May 1. In German you call the day Aprilnarr . In France and other French-speaking countries you talk on April 1 about poissons d’avril ( April fish ). These are people where others have managed discretely to paste a paper fish on their back.

We have started on a new year.  A year, when a number of important elections are coming up. Free democratic elections are of fundamental importance in any real democracy.   Organised at regular intervals, and in which politicians with many different attitudes may freely participate. And when the result of the election is there, it will be accepted by everybody – on the condition that the rule for elections have been respected.   This is how it is in OUR part of the world.   Unfortunately, this is only the case in a minority of countries around the world.   And the recent development in the USA is putting their system and our perception of it under severe pressure ☹ One of the purposes of my daily TODAY is to follow the political development in Europe. Especially in our 26 partner countries in the EU.   We are today so dependent upon one another, that what happens in one country has important influence on all of us. In positive ways and negative ways – f...

JANUARY 7: I believe that we are all thinking about the US today.   For very good reasons 😊 – and also for very bad reasons ☹ . The very important news is that president-elect Joe Biden is now finally and definitively confirmed this morning as the next US president as of Wednesday, January 20.   This was confirmed by an overwhelming majority in Congress.   The other positive news is that the Democrats won both elections in Georgia ( against the two sitting Republicans ) – which means that the Democrats now have the majority in the Senate too.    This makes it easier for president Biden to get his programmes and appointments approved. And it also sends a clear message to the Republicans that they now pay for their incredible and unconditional support to President Trump during the last four years. They now have to rebuild their party almost from scratch. The negative news was of course the mortal, unconstitutional and destructive insurrection – initiated b...

JANUARY 1: On this day most of us have celebrated our NEW YEAR.   And as you might know other parts of the world celebrate their new year at a different time.   Here are a few examples: Chinese New Year 202 1 :                     February 12 Thai New Year 202 1 (Songkran):    April 13-15 Hindu New Year 2021:                       April 12 Muslim New Year 202 1 (Eid) :           July 19-23 Jewish New Year ( Rosh Hashane):   September 6-8

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...

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 ...

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 c...

  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, wha...

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 fe...

NOVEMBER 29: What do you know about ADVENT and the traditional ADVENT WREATH used in Denmark and Germany ?   As most people know Advent in the Western Christian church is the period from the 4 th Sunday before the birth of Jesus. You talk about the 1 st , the 2 nd , the 3 rd and the 4 th Sunday of Advent. The word advent comes from Latin:  Adventum, which means Coming .  The coming of Jesus. The first Sunday in Advent is also the start of the new church year. The traditional colour of Advent is purple . It is a symbol of fast, which in a way is also part of the Advent period. This colour is also the royal colour. Perhaps originally with reference to the arrival of the king Jesus. In the Orthodox church you do not celebrate Advent in the same way. You talk instead about Nativity Fast , fast before the arrival of Jesus. It starts some days before Advent. And it is not the start of the church year. The so-called Advent Wreath ( see photo ) started in Ger...

NOVEMBER 24: This is the day! The day when president Trump finally three weeks after the American elections de facto accepts that Joe Biden has won the elections.   And won by a big margin.   So, now US is coming back to the world.   The nominations president-elect Biden is doing shows that he is choosing experienced and professional people, who know what they will be responsible for.   This is also great news for Europe.    The European-American relations will now come back on the track – as real allies, not as sort of adversaries, as Trump preferred to see them.   EU president Charles Michel yesterday congratulated Biden with his victory and invited him to a summit meeting with EU in Brussels next year, after he has taken over in January. The EU with its 448 mio. inhabitants and the US with 328 mio. have a lot in common.   Their mutual trade is huge. In 2019 it was 720 billion dollars – which is about one third of all international trade. ...

NOVEMBER 19: Tonight the European Council ( the EU Summit of heads and state and government ) will meet by video conference. One of the topics to be discussed will, of course, be the fight against the corona pandemy and what to do in the future. I make every day a short overview of the corona situation in Europe – based on public information.   See below. OBS:   If you want to be on my mailing list and get the updated overview every day, please, let me know. CORONA DEVELOPMENT Short daily overview based on official figures ( Inf.=infected; Dea= deaths ) DATE:           EU- 27           EU-27                    DK INF.        DK   DEATH              B INF.         B   DEATH   ...

NOVEMBER 17: One of the many questions I often have is: What has the EU done to improve the environment over the years? It is evident that densely populated and highly industrialised countries like the member states of the European Union do not only have an interest in protecting the environment, but that they also will do something about it.   Programmes to protect the environment started in different countries at different times. And from the mid 1960ies joint initiatives were also taken at EU level. In 1967 it started with a directive on labelling of dangerous chemicals. But it was only from November 1973 that EU activities really started in this important area.   At that moment the first EU Action programme for protection of the environment was adopted and put into action.   It happened as a follow-up to the United Nations environment conference in Stockholm the year before. And it was during the first Danish EU presidency that the programme was adopted. From ...