Thursday was one of the series of Spring public holidays that when interpreted liberally means about five long weekends more or less in a row. (They’re less ‘in a row’ than usual due to stupid early Easter.)
It was coincidentally May Day, which any good Socialist Dane recognises by going to Fælledparken and drinking beer. (It rained; I skipped.) Primarily it was for what in English we’d call ‘Ascension Day’. In Danish, it’s ‘Kristi Himmelfartsdag’.
I’d thought I was as amused as I could be about the name until I talked to Claus about the literal translation. ‘Himmel’ means ‘sky’ and ‘fart’ means ‘speed’. (‘Kristi’ is ‘Christ’, ‘dag’ is ‘day’.) The word for speed is useful to know if you’re ever driving on Danish roads and see signs for ‘Fart Kontrol‘. Between giggles, you should slow down. I don’t know what the story is with the town of Middelfart though.
Put together, ‘himmelfart’ reads a bit more like ‘launch’.
"We are a Go on Jesus. That’s a Go on Jesus."
This is not going to be not funny for while.
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