A DANE IN AMERICA — New column by journalist Lis King
A Dane in America
By Lis King
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Danish Pioneer’s popular columnist Lis King is back writing her interesting articles on being “A Dane in America”. Lis was a journalist in her native Denmark. She has become a well-known writer in the USA, is the author of several how-to books and has written a novel. She is now living in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Welcome back and enjoy!
Thumbing through my favorite food and wine magazine, I’m suddenly gripped by homesickness. For there I come across an article in which noted food writer Mimi Sheraton describes the 10 meals she has enjoyed most during her many years of traveling the world. The first meal she singles out is a dinner in a Danish home.
It wasn’t just that the food was delicious in all its fresh simplicity, she writes. It was the table and room, totally candle-lit, that made the meal so memorable. Somehow that illumination caused guests to lower their voices, raised the level of civility, and cast a magical glow on the gathering, she comments.
I know exactly what she means. In my childhood home in Denmark, dinner was never served without candles. Even when my mother decided a summer evening was too lovely to stay inside, the candles came outside with us, not just to illuminate the table, but also shrubs and trees. I remember candles, inserted in lanterns, strung on the branches of a gnarly old apple tree, and more lanterns placed strategically under the lilac bushes.
The candle habit stayed with me when I came to the US and that was long before the American public became almost as candle-crazy as the Danes. In fact, people coming to dinner at my house, used to cast long glances at the flock of candles on the table, wondering, I suspect, what heathen religion advocated all those flickering lights.
A while back I moved to Pennsylvania Dutch country, and driving home at dusk I’m always charmed to see lit candles in the windows of so many homes. “Friend,” they seem to say, “you’re welcome here.” Indeed, that’s the interpretation I find when I start an Internet search. Apparently, the custom began when a Pennsylvania Dutch tourist home left the Christmas candles in the windows year-round. The owners thought it a welcoming gesture.
I agree. It is. But inevitably I also think of the May 5th candles in Danish windows. I remember my mother talking about the evening when that custom began. She and my father plus some friends had been huddled around the forbidden radio when the BBC in London announced that the German forces in Northern Europe had capitulated. Spontaneously Danes placed candles in their windows, symbolizing the end of the Nazi yoke and five years of odious blackout.
“Such a special night,” she told me. “Just thinking of it makes my spine tingle.”
How lovely that the Danes still celebrate that evening with candles in the windows.
======================================================================================
ABOUT THE DANISH PIONEER NEWSPAPER – SINCE 1872 – ENGLISH & DANISH ARTICLES
DID YOU KNOW THAT THE DANISH PIONEER NEWSPAPER WAS FOUNDED IN OMAHA, NEBRASKA IN 1872 AND TODAY IS STILL PUBLISHED JUST OUTSIDE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS? Did you know by supporting The Danish Pioneer Newspaper’s print edition, we are able to offer the bonus of our colorful, exciting website. Please support The Danish Pioneer Newspaper. Subscriptions to our print edition are economical, and you receive 26 issues per year including the extra-large, extra-special holiday issue. Subscriptions and advertisements – like annual donations to ethnic institutions or memberships to clubs, lodges and organizations – help The Danish Pioneer Newspaper staff to preserve and to support the Danish-American ethnic press in addition to allowing us to promote the Danish and Scandinavian culture, communities, heritage and traditions in the USA and North America. Please subscribe today or give The Danish Pioneer Newspaper as a gift subscription to a friend or relative. Visit http://www.thedanishpioneer.com/subscribe/
MANGE TAK! Thank you for your support and WELCOME to The Danish Pioneer Family!
