So much to say about the Danish culture

Now, we’re in Denmark, not so far away from our final destination, Norway.

As I am fascinated about foreign cultures, I would like to tell you something more about the culture of this country.

The Danish culture is rich in arts, but has some general characteristics too. To start, modesty, punctuality and equality are very important aspects of the Danish way of living.

In Denmark, culture and arts are very far developed because they receive a high amount of funding from the local government, this is to involve the citizens directly. In Denmark, they have a system of grants. Thanks to this system, artists are able to devote themselves to their work and museums, theatres and film institutes receive national support.

Denmark also has a very specific architecture. In the past, Denmark was known for its Romanesque then Gothic churches. The 20^th century brought new architectural styles, the expressionism and Nordic Classicism. Danish architects entered the world with Functionalist architecture, as it is known. This has evolved into more recent world-class masterpieces like la Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris, Sydney Opera House,…  I have to say, I have seen the Arche de la Défense, but I never thought that this could by inspired by Danish architecture.

I wanted to tell you something more about the culture, but now I realise that this is too much, so I’ll pick out some different aspects that interest me.

Not only the architecture is known as functionalistic, also the design. This design is typically applied to furniture, household objects and industrial design. Something nice to know is that the functionalistic design has won many international awards.

I’ll finish with telling you something more about the music and sports in Denmark.

Denmark with its capital Copenhagen has a wide range of folk traditions. The Royal Danish Orchestra is one of the oldest in the world. Danish are known as jazz musicians. So the jazz musicians and the Copenhagen Jazz festival have acquired an international reputation.

Sports are very popular in Denmark, as well as music. The Danish people participate and watch sports in a wide variety. The national sport is football, or soccer.

In recent years, Denmark has become a strong cycling nation, with Bjarne Riis and Michael Rasmussen.

Other popular sports are golf, tennis, rugby and rowing. Concerning rowing, is Denmark specialised in light- weight rowing. They won for example three gold and two bronze Olympic medals.

Indoor sports are very popular too, these are badminton, table tennis and handball. The national handball team is the current reigning champion.

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Denmark

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/denmark-country-profile.html
http://goscandinavia.about.com/od/scandinavianculture/ss/denmarkculture.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark