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Danish Word of the Day: Helligdag

The Local Denmark
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Danish Word of the Day: Helligdag

Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash and Nicolas Raymond/FlickR

If you have the day off work today, spend five minutes of your free time learning this heavenly Danish word.

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What is helligdag?

The most important thing to know is that helligdag means "public holiday" (and also "bank holiday" in British usage). Christmas, Easter, New Year’s Day and Great Prayer Day (Store Bededag) are all public holidays, when many are able to enjoy the day off work.

READ ALSO: What public holidays does Denmark have in 2022?

Etymologically, the word is closely related to the English ‘holiday’. Hellig is the Danish word for "holy" (and dag is "day").

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Incidentally, Great Prayer Day – which is celebrated in Denmark on the fourth Friday after Easter – originates from the 18th century, when it was introduced as an alternative to individually celebrating various minor saints during the spring (and thereby cutting the number of public holidays in a year). The Roman Catholic holidays had, up to that point, survived the Reformation in Denmark.

The historical background of the Great Prayer Day holiday explains why there are no real traditions associated with it.

Why do I need to know helligdag?

If your boss tells you there’s a helligdag coming up soon, you’ll want to make sure you understand, or you might end up coming in to work when everyone else is enjoying the day off.

This is particularly pertinent in the spring, when the Great Prayer Day, Ascension (Kristi Himmelfart) and Pentecost (Pinse) holidays all fall within weeks of each other.

There's also an important distinction between a helligdag and a fridag (day off). Both refer to days on which you don't have to work, but the latter is usually the result of a special arrangement rather than being a national public holiday.

You might, for example, be given May 1st (Labour Day), June 5th (Constitution Day or Grundlovsdag) or Christmas Eve off work, but this is probably because they are overenskomstmæssige fridage ("collective bargaining agreement-determined days off"): none of those days are public holidays.

Of course, people on employment contracts can also use ferie ("annual leave") to take some time off work.

Examples

Maj er helt klart årets bedste måned. Der er to helligdage, hvor man kan nyde en forlænget weekend.

May is obviously the best month of the year. There are two public holidays when you can enjoy a long weekend.

1. maj er faktisk ikke en helligdag i Danmark. Men det gør ikke så meget, for der er to helligdage senere på måneden.

Labour Day is not actually a public holiday in Denmark. But it doesn’t really matter, as there are two bank holidays later in the month.

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