STORE BEDEDAG

Today is Store Bededag in Denmark, "Big Prayer Day". It is a public holiday, always held on the fourth Friday after Easter.

Store Bededag was introduced in order to replace a number of other prayer and fast days (eg every Wednesday). Many Danes believe that it was part of the 1770 reform that halved the then number of public holidays from 22, by removing the likes of Epiphany, the day after Boxing Day, and Michaelmas. But its origins are in fact much older, dating from a reform in his diocese by the then Bishop of Roskilde, Hans Bagger, in 1686. The idea was taken up and given royal approval by the then king Christian V, who apparently liked the fact that he could get his praying out of the way before the start of the annual summer tour of his lands and dominions, a tradition that continues to this day.

Store Bededag is one of the most popular days for holding confirmations. Confirmation usually takes place towards the end of seventh grade, when children are 14. It is a combination of the religious and the secular, with a big party (Danes don't really celebrate 18th or 21st birthdays in the same way as other countries do). However, because virtually all one's friends are having confirmations at the same time, the party is mainly for extended family and relations. The child being confirmed gets lots of money and presents; in return, they have to give a speech, often their first ever. So too does their father, reviewing their life and extolling their virtues, something I have now done three times. Plus paying three large bills, of course ....

I spent the day neither praying nor partying, but helping my sister-in-law in Aarhus. For Christmas presents this year we offered each other a day's free labour. I won my elder son, who was quickly put to use in helping to demolish the woodshed, part of the Smug Builder project. For my sister-in-law, I had to stand in the rain and scrub the algae off her wooden garden furniture and flower pots while she tidied up in her small urban garden. Then we went off to the garden centre, and bought large bags of soil and associated flowers to put in it. Manual labour can be very satisfying, and it is remarkable how much can be achieved if you are focussed. But it is also knackering. After washing all that work down with "eggcake" and beer, it was time for a two-hour afternoon nap. It's possible I did some praying during that time, but unlikely.

Arriving back home in the evening, I then watched the film Julie and Julia, about the blogger (Julie Phillips) who worked her way through Julia Child's famous cookbook in the course of a year. For a fellow blogger, it was rather inspiring, even if I can't bone a duck. Yet.

Walter Blotscher