conGRADulations

I forgot to mention a special Danish tradition I witnessed today while wandering the streets of the Copenhagen suburbs. When students graduate from high school/secondary school over here, they have a special little parade that they do to celebrate. First of all, each student receives a special graduate hat, that kind of looks like the French Legionaries or some kind of naval cap. They must wear the hat at all times to signify their accomplishments, and you must compliment them.

To seriously celebrate the graduation, large groups of students rent trucks for the day, kind of like how in the US we hire limousines to go to prom. The students then pile into the backs of the these trucks, and I'm talking military style trucks, not pickups, and they drink and blast music while dancing, yelling, and blowing whistles. The proper response from everyone else is to honk their horns and yell in approval - traffic comes to a standstill while all surrounding Danes recall their own graduation and respond with memories of their own delight. I saw at least 15 of these trucks go by, the most recent one only 15 minutes ago, at 11:30 pm.

When I brought this up to Nicolaj and his family, they slipped into reverie, and his dad, Giacomo, recalled Nicolaj's graduation and the grand celebration they had for it. I asked them if they still have their hats, and they do. It seems like a truly special, Danish tradition they have going on here, and I am happy to have witnessed it. I can't say I'm not jealous, because it looks super fun, but I can gloat in the fact that where I'm from, we have sunlight all year round. Take that, Denmark!

Tip for Danish living - respect the flag. The flag is very important to the Danes. Even tonight at a dinner where the patriarch is Italian, the dinner table was littered with small Danish flags. Their national identity is very important to them, and since the flag represents that, they put it everywhere, as you can see in the picture above.