Monday, April 18, 2011

On religious holidays and other discrepancies




The Danes are not religious, and by that, I mean not religious at all and admit it without prejudice.
Americans are admittedly very religious, and a lack of religious beliefs is seen somewhat as a moral atrocity, a form of social deviance that does not fit with the American way of life.

While 80.9% of Danes belong to the Danish National Church (yes, there is an official religion in Denmark: Lutheran), only 31% of Danes believe there is a God.
Even though the USA is a secular state, religion is highly embedded in all aspects of the public sphere and guides political debates right and left. Only 16.1% of Americans reported themselves as non-religious in a survey done in 2007 and 78.4% of adults reported to follow a faith of Christian denomination.

Danes take vacation very seriously.
American's don't.

Danes (as far as I can tell) don't stress out easily.
Stress is America's work ethic.

Danes are masters of work/life balance.
American's struggle with work/life balance on a daily basis.

Danish stores are only open til 5 or 6 pm on weekdays, and on Saturday mornings; it is almost impossible to find anything open on Sundays.
American stores never seem to close.

The Danes take off Thursday, Friday, [the weekend of course], and Monday for Easter.
Easter holidays in the US don't exist (even though it is the most important holiday for Christian denominations (or at least it should be-- after all).

1 comment:

  1. Interesting! I'm assuming you mean "national holidays" don't exist in the US for easter. Because every job I've had since I started working has given a paid holiday for Good Friday. Still doesn't even come close to a 5 day weekend for Easter! :)

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