KEY POINTS: What changes about life in Denmark in February 2023?

Keep saving on gas

Denmark has cut the majority of its consumption of Russian gas but it is too early to disregard all energy saving measures, experts have advised.

“We’ve been good at cutting back. But if we stop saving now, we’ll run into problems next year,” Trine Villumsen Berling of the Danish Institute for International Studies told DR.

Much of the gas currently stored was originally supplied by Russia. Power plants still need to use gas to produce energy when weather conditions reduce wind output, Berling said.

“We need Danes to still have those good habits. We must remain aware of how we use energy and how much we turn on the heating for quite a while yet,” she said.

Check your tax payments

In January, the Tax Authority advised all taxpayers to check their preliminary returns (forskudsopgørelse), especially if there were changes to their circumstances in 2022. This can ensure you don’t have to pay a tax deficit when 2023's tax returns are finalised next year.

The advice is still relevant in February (it's still early in the year)) and you can read more information about it in our explainer.

The preliminary tax return can be viewed (and information corrected) by visiting the Skat (tax authority) website and signing in with MitID. The agency can also be contacted over the phone or in writing for guidance on the return and other tax matters.

The annual tax return statement (årsopgørelse) for 2022 will meanwhile be ready on the Skat website on March 13th. Here you can see whether you are due money back or paid too little in tax last year. The deadline for correcting the annual statement is May 1st.

READ MORE: Denmark’s tax authority to release annual returns on March 13th

Plans on abolishing public holiday move forward

The formal bill to scrap the Great Prayer Day public holiday, which is now in consultation, could be passed by the end of February but is facing significant resistance.

It's at the first stage of the process before it becomes law and a speedy process means there is less time in which objections can be brought up against it in parliament.

The government’s ambition is to pass the law before collective bargaining agreements are voted on by trade unions in the spring. Negotiations for these have already begun with employer organisations in some sectors.

The three governing parties – the Social Democrats, Liberals (Venstre) and Moderates – want to abolish springtime public holiday Great Prayer Day from 2024, in a move they say will enable increased defence spending to meet Nato targets by 2030, three years ahead of the current schedule.

The policy has met with criticism from trade unions, the church and opposition parties, while the military has also distanced itself from the plan.

Fastelavn

Fastelavn is celebrated in Denmark every year on the Sunday before Shrove Tuesday, which this year is February 19th. Nurseries, kindergartens and schools may also celebrate the day in the week leading up to it and it adds some excitement to what can feel like a boring winter month. 

Some call it a Nordic Halloween. Children dress up, but unlike Halloween, they don’t have to be scary - any costume goes, so parents can raid the dressing up box for whatever they can find.

Once dressed up, the children form an orderly queue and take it in turns to hit a large barrel. It’s similar to piñata, but is called slå katten af tønden, which means hit the cat out of the barrel. It comes from a very old tradition when a poor cat would be placed in the barrel and the barrel hit with a stick until the cat escaped. The cat was then chased out of the town, with the idea it was taking bad luck away with it. 

Instead of a cat escaping, sweets now fall out of the barrel. The child who successfully frees the sweets, is named the Queen of Cats (Kattedronning). The child who takes down the last piece of barrel, is named King of cats (Kattekongen).

After barrel-hitting is complete, some children then go around their neighbours knocking on doors for sweets or money, or some people hold a little party.

Fastelavn also involves fastelavnsboller. These are sweet rolls covered in icing and filled with cream - there are many variations so try all you can. 

There's also a Fastelavn song, that is guaranteed to stick in your head.

READ MORE: Fastelavn: What is the Danish childrens’ carnival all about?

Copenhagen Fashion Week

If you live in the capital, you may have already noticed the increased buzz around the centre. Copenhagen Fashion Week started on January 31st and runs until February 3rd. The biannual event attracts thousands of people to Copenhagen, as fashion is celebrated with exhibitions, street parties, mini-concerts and catwalk shows.

Lighter days are coming

February is still very much the depth of winter in Denmark but the days are slowly getting longer. The sun is now rising just after 8am and setting just before 5pm.

Nights remain longer than days until the spring equinox or jævndøgn in Danish, which occurs on March 20th this year.

Denmark’s dark winters aren’t as severe as in Sweden and Norway, which both experience polar nights – when the sun doesn’t rise at all for several weeks.