A DIS Festen

Tonight was my hygge dinner with my Danish class.

At 6 p.m., we were supposed to gather in Vestergade 10A - 35 for dinner. I got there really early because I had a field study for Gender, Body and Sexuality at 1 p.m., so it didn't make much sense to go to Hillerød and back. It was funny, because I saw Mogens, my teacher, and we got up there and he looked at the classroom and said, "No, this won't do. It's not hygge enough."

So we went all the way to the bottom of Vestergade 7 to the basement, where we normally have class and Mogens said "This will do much better." So we went back to go get all the food that was up there and leave a sign on the door.

The hygge dinner, other than that warm, comfortable feeling, also included a dinner of smørrebrød, the traditional Danish open-faced sandwich and Festen, a Danish "dogma" film.

The sandwiches consisted of several combinations of fish, eggs, meat and cheeses on rye bread. I didn't like the bread, and it also happens to be Passover, so I just ate the top part, but I liked that. I don't eat meat, except for fish, so I was very excited also to be able to eat something because a lot of Danish food involves meat. We also had this dessert, which Danes love to try and get Americans, or other foreigners, to try to say. It's called røde grød med fløde, which translates as red fruit dessert with cream. We specifically had strawberries, or jordbær. It was delicious. I'm excited that I chose to take Danish. The University of Maryland didn't force me to, but I thought it would be a good idea and I'm very glad that I did.

The movie was also really powerful. It's a Dogma movie, which in and of itself is an interesting concept. Everything is meant to be as real as possible. The camera work is all done by hand without and the clothing that the actors are wearing is their own. I've also heard that the sex is real. Based on Festen, I suppose it's possible that that's the case. It took place mainly at the 60th birthday of Helge Klingenfelt. All of his friends and family are there. He asks his oldest son to give a speech, which turns out to be "the speech of truth," as Helge realizes that his son is going to reveal some damaging family secrets. I highly recommend it if you are ever in the mood for something serious. It's certainly worth your while.