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If you have ever experienced a bright summer’s night in Denmark, you will understand why more and more Danes prefer to spend their holidays in their own country. Months of winter darkness make Danes yearn for light and enjoy every second of the cherished rays of sun. There are probably few other nations where, as the sun-craving and winter pale Danes, people regard the sun as an important source of vitamin C!
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Finally Summer! But we do get sunlight in abundance when summer finally arrives. The longest day is 17 hours and 27 minutes. And every year on 23 June we celebrate these long days on what we call Saint John’s Eve. All along Denmark’s almost 7,500 kilometres of coastline, we Danes gather large piles of dry branches and twigs for our bonfire night, transforming the night by a stroke of a match.
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While the flames are mirrored in the calm sea and the mild evening air starts to cool, people gather around the bonfires to warm themselves by the flames while the beautiful midsummer night song from 1885 by the national poet Holger Drachmann is lifted to the occasion.
Holger Drachmann, a charismatic poet with a wide-brimmed hat and a long cloak, mainly sought company in Skagen, Denmark’s northernmost point, which is perhaps where the summer solstice is most beautifully set. The clear silhouette of the old, black bascule lighthouse against the wide sandy beach where jubilant, white-clad high school graduates lead the chorus and remind us of our carefree youth. This unforgettable scene is repeated year after year and harks back to the late 19th century when artists were drawn by the unique light of Skagen. The world-famous painters Poul and Anna Ancher and the master P.S. Krøyer conveyed this unique Nordic light best of all. The light of Skagen is also a recurring subject of conversation at the tables by the red
wooden houses on the harbour where people enjoy freshly boiled prawns with a glass of chilled white wine. “Where does it come from? It’s almost magical!” people marvel. There is, however, a reason for this unique luminance. The wide beaches and chalk-white sand reflect the sunlight, creating magic. This phenomenon is not only found on Skagen, but also along the entire stretch of the west coast of Jutland, in Northern Zealand and on the sunshine island of Bornholm where it also gave rise to 19th century artist colonies with all that it entailed of the classic bohemian lifestyle with straw hats, bright linen clothes and scrumptious picnic baskets for luncheons on the grass.
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It is the many hours of sunshine during the summer months that bring out the best in Danish cuisine. No doubt, the hearty winter country kitchen does have its charm, but nothing beats Danish asparagus and the other early spring greens, which as first-class garnish almost steal the picture from the mild Easter lamb and the first wild salmon. Young Danish potatoes are a chapter of their own – yet another fixture of Danish news reporting is when the first, costly kilos of produce are shipped to the mainland from the charming ‘potato island’ of Samsø, arriving at Denmark’s second-largest town, Aarhus. The first potatoes of spring are sold at auction to the best restaurateurs in town at shameless prices. A few weeks after, these delights become common staples. Yet another feature of the Danish kitchen is our deep-red strawberries, given time to ripen and sweeten like probably nowhere else. They taste of every sunshine hour.
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Inspirational Light
Light has also had decisive influence on Denmark’s proud traditions within design. The most prominent sign of spring in Denmark is when the beech trees green; the national tree unfolds its lime green leaves in late April, early May, and no matter the news from hotspots the world over, this natural event will always find its way to the news on all major TV channels. It is no wonder that light beech wood played a significant role when the Danish furniture industry first found international success. The genius of chair design, Hans J. Wegner, built the prototype of his bestseller Y-chair in beech wood by his own hand – today his daughter carries on the business, notably preoccupied with experiments involving a special kind of beech with an exceptionally magnificent wood grain.
Within architecture, light has played a more abstract role. It is no coincidence that the living legend Henning Larsen is called the Master of Light. The now 78-year-old but still active architect grew up in West Jutland in a simple home with the sun and a kerosene lamp as the only sources of light – later making light and not brick or choice of material the perhaps most important architectural feature of his grand structures, such as the cathedral-like extension to the New Carlsberg Glyptotek art museum in Copenhagen; and not far from there, by the waterside, the Nordea Bank HQ; and abroad, buildings such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Riyadh and the City Library in Malmö, Sweden.
Let us finish on a mild summer evening in Tivoli Gardens. Here, in the old amusement park in the heart of Copenhagen, light plays a very special part. Just as many of the world’s other amusement parks, Tivoli Gardens is a true Eldorado for children. The Danes, however, continue to visit Tivoli Gardens long past their childhood. The 160-year-old garden is treasured by young lovers and older, romantic couples alike as they take their evening stroll, arm in arm, through the quiet corners of the garden, perhaps heading for the lover’s bench where they indulge in each other – and in the coloured lights reflecting in the small lakes and canals. Incidentally, here design buffs will find the key to understanding one of the most important chapters of Danish design history. Poul
Henningsen, the man behind the world-famous PH lamp, devised his ingenious principles of lighting while working on his first assignment for Tivoli Gardens. During World War II, a blackout was ordered in Copenhagen, not least affecting the flood of light from Tivoli – but you don’t close Tivoli Gardens just because there is a war on! Poul Henningsen’s lamps cast light discreetly towards the ground but cannot be seen from above…
If you are so privileged as to have a blonde beauty by your side, you may easily be tempted to stay up all night – the summer night only lasts until three o’clock when the morning welcomes the first rays of light and – on a good day – fills you with a feeling of deep contentment and a rare sense of immortality…
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