Merry Christmas, dear readers! As the bells rang on 1st November at 00.00, the Christmas season was officially opened in Denmark. If you paid attention, you might have noticed staff hanging lights over street crossings and even at the iconic Hotel L’Anglaterre on the last day of October. As Halloween exits the stage, the holiday flare is ready to take the spotlight.
The 1st of November this year landed perfectly to open the month with J-Day, one of the country’s biggest holiday celebrations. It is traditionally celebrated on the first Friday of the month, a concrete rite of passage into the winter season. The celebration was originally created 34 years ago, in 1990, when the Danish brewery Tuborg first introduced its Christmas beer, “Tuborg Julebryg”, which literally translated to Christmas brew.
On J-Day, Tuborg employees around the country get dressed as “beer elves”, also known as nissedreng, distributing Jylebrug in bars, cafés and pubs around Denmark. What makes this beverage distinct from other beers is its darker color and its maltier flavor, brewed with hints of caramel, and, obviously, licorice.
As the clock hits 20.59, the Tuborg trucks arrive to the sound of holiday music, and the first glasses are poured. It’s a hard-to-miss type of show, with snowflake confetti, Christmas hats and other decorations.
Although J-Day was originally founded as a commercial event, it has quickly become rooted in Danish culture, offering an excuse to feel jolly about the incoming Christmas carols and cold days. Around Scandinavia, other traditional seasonal drinks of this sort exist. In Sweden, it is Julmust, a sweet, dark, carbonated drink that resembles root beer but has no alcohol (and it often outsells Coca-Cola!). In Norway, it is Julebrus, a sweet and fruity soda – you can find a different edition of it for each region of the country.
