Thank goodness it’s Friday! Best day of the week. If you ask my DKs, that would be because Friday means
a) a slice of ryebread with ‘chokolade pålæg’ (thin slice of chocolate) in their packed lunchboxes – the only day of the week where they get anything remotely sweet
b) weekend in sight, no more school til Monday morning at 8am
c) Disney Show on TV
d) weekly sweet ration.
The last two go hand-in-hand. The Disney TV cartoon show starts at 7pm every Friday night on the first Danish public channel and last for 60 minutes (no ads). A mixture of old and new Disney cartoons which always ends with a classic 1930s or 40s one. If the DKs are lucky, it will be a Donald Duck one (Donald Duck is sacred in Denmark – the most loved of all the Disney characters). Mickey is cute, Donald is funny.
Disney Show is not just a tradition in Danish households, it’s an institution. The whole family gathers around the television set and breaks out the sweets. Danes are, in general, pretty good at limiting their (small) kids to one portion of sweets per week. And Friday is usually the day.
We have the same tradition in our little Scottish-Danish family and, I have to say, there’s nothing cosier.