Happy Fastelavn

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Duncan and Natalie are just trying to keep Kiddo innocent for as long as possible, and no Danish holiday is going to change that!

Heh, as I promised, Happy Fastelavn!

I’m out a bit early because it won’t be Fastelavn before the 14. February this year, but it’s never on the same day because it follows Easter, so Niels probably got the dates confused.

On Fastelavn the children dress up and goes to public parties where they beat a barrel that is hung from a rope with a bat until it breaks. In the old days a live black cat was put in the barrel, and the children would beat it to death when the barrel broke, but these days the barrel is filled with candy and the cat is made of cardboard or simply painted on the wood.
The child who first breaks the barrel becomes the Cat Queen no matter what gender the child is. The child who gets the last plank of the rope becomes the Cat King. They both get little crowns to proudly wear.
The next day they put on their costumes again and goes from door to door with homemade money boxes, asking for money with a song.

And then there are the Fastelavnsris, which are basically primitive whips that the children can use to wake their parents with on Fastelavn morning, but few parents tell their children about that tradition.

11th February 2010