Gækkebrev - what's that
Maybe it is something like Valentine – but in Denmark it is something new to celebrate Valentine’s Day – imported from the USA.
But at Easter we have a tradition for making ‘gækkebreve’ – and since this do not exist in English speaking countries – how then translate it? My Danish-English dictionary use this explanation: “letter sent at Easter with a snowdrop in, receiver being asked to guess who the sender is.” Well – this could be part of an explanation – but we need to tell, that the letter is a paper cut and the words should be a rhyme of some kind – home made or a traditional – ending with something like ‘mit navn det står med prikker / pas på det ikke stikker!’ ‘My name is written with dots as pricks/ beware it don’t harms you and sticks.’
At a flea market I found a little collection of gækkebreve. I found out, that they were sent to a teacher in a little village, situated in Jutland around 1938- 1950. I can’t translate the many rhymes, but I can show you some of the most interesting paper cuts.
The flower snowdrop in Danish is called vintergæk ‘winters kid’ as this is an early flower, often seen at Easter.
Gækkebrev - what's that
Maybe it is something like Valentine – but in Denmark it is something new to celebrate Valentine’s Day – imported from the USA.
But at Easter we have a tradition for making ‘gækkebreve’ – and since this do not exist in English speaking countries – how then translate it? My Danish-English dictionary use this explanation: “letter sent at Easter with a snowdrop in, receiver being asked to guess who the sender is.” Well – this could be part of an explanation – but we need to tell, that the letter is a paper cut and the words should be a rhyme of some kind – home made or a traditional – ending with something like ‘mit navn det står med prikker / pas på det ikke stikker!’ ‘My name is written with dots as pricks/ beware it don’t harms you and sticks.’
At a flea market I found a little collection of gækkebreve. I found out, that they were sent to a teacher in a little village, situated in Jutland around 1938- 1950. I can’t translate the many rhymes, but I can show you some of the most interesting paper cuts.
The flower snowdrop in Danish is called vintergæk ‘winters kid’ as this is an early flower, often seen at Easter.