Night courting

I'm a Dane, and I've often had trouble explaining what that means, beyond being born in Denmark. Who are the Danes? When I lived in New York (1998-2002), I met exciting people from all over the world, and they all had something interesting to say about their country. The Japanese eat raw fish, the Chinese eat anything, the Americans invented pizza, etc. (New York was a lot about food, plus a few other things), but the Danes aren't special in any of these ways, because we are so small, and everything we do someone else does, too. And as a side note I could mention that I am pretty cross that all the old women who kept the lore of the people were accused of being witches and then burnt on the stake. Christianity has been supremely efficient at replacing pagan customs in Denmark.

But, today I am redeemed. Two words, as they say (except it's always much more than that): Night courting.

Premarital sexual activity was, in fact, common, and young men in many villages were permitted to sleep over in the bed of a young woman in the custom called night courting. Village customs thus set the stage for the Sexual freedom and independence of both women and men that is characteristic of Denmark today.

A-ha! Had I only known sooner. I mean, sooner than coming to New York. That would have been glorious. We could have celebrated night courting on a regular basis, in addition to what sexual freedom we thus enjoyed.

But seriously, I do wish I had had the knowledge to boast about our promiscuity. Yeah yeah, you may have your folk dances and your fancy dresses, but we have night courting, so... so come visit us anytime. What I couldn't have done for tourism, had I only known.