Celebrating Fastelavn

Over all the years I have been travelling to, or living in Denmark, and for whatever reason I have never been here in February - probably something to do with depressing Danish winter…

But, one of the best, little known Nordic traditions that isn’t very known outside of Scandinavia happens in February and i’m so excited I finally got to celebrate it this year! Fastelavn!

Fastelavn translated means “the evening before lent.” but as the Nordics aren’t very religious and lent isn’t widely practiced, its now more of a fun celebration filled with the greatest treat of all - fastelavnsboller.

Each country celebrates it on a different day - but here in Denmark it happens to be on February 14th, instead of Valentines Day. Considering the holiday was originally a carnival, there is a lot of pageantry and games associated with it. Children will go to school dressed in costumes, have a parade and sing songs - one of which, ‘festelavn er mit navn,’ in the song the kids threaten to commit shenanigans if they aren’t given festalavnsbollers, so kinda similar to Halloween!

One other interesting tradition of the holiday here in Denmark is slå katten af tønden or ‘beating the cat out of the barrel.’ Dont worry, no cats are actually harmed during the holiday! It stems from the idea that people once believed that cats were the companions of witches and therefore evil. To protect themselves from these wicked forces, people put the cat in a barrel, strung it up and started beating it with clubs until the barrel broke. The terrified cat would then jump out and run away – which symbolized evil leaving their town and good luck going into the new season. Now the barrels are filled with candy and treats and a drawing of a cat is placed inside - kind of like a piñata.

You might also notice some very bright twigs in your neighbors window during this time! Children will make fastelavnsris, which are birch twigs that are adorned with bright coloured feathers and paper ornaments to symbolize moving from depressing dark winter into a vibrant sprint.

fun fact: in ye old Denmark, birch trees were a sign of fertility, so young men could whack ladies with them to make them fertile.

But as I said, the real star of Fastelavn season are the buns! The special, sweet, creamy pastries that come out only at this time of year and are worth it for a visit!

Each country has their own take on it, for example the laskiaispulla in Finland or the semlor from Sweden, but they all have the same idea.

Here in Copenhagen, every single bakery will do their own spin on a fastelavnsboller. The two most standard ways I have experienced them are either more in the shape of a cream filled ‘donut’ or a bun filled with a thick, sweet cream, and topped with icing. Sometimes there’s a jam or marzipan filling inside too. But bakeries get so creative with them! Some have blueberry cream, kinder bueno, yuzu, raspberry, blackcurrant, chocolate glazed, iced on top, lavendar, sugar…ANYTHING!

Seeing as it was my first Fastelavn season, I figured I better go try as many as I can and rate my favourite ones! (full disclosure: sometimes I ate them before I could take a photo because they were too good!)

Eating my way through Fastelavn has been the best part of this winter so far! If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in Denmark at this time of year, make sure you try more than a few of these bad boys!

I’ve put my own list down below of what I think are the best buns in the city! Add your own favourite in there too :) Enjoy! xoxo

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