Jan 2nd 2018

The USA is known as a multicultural country, because many immigrants around the world came to live in the country since it was founded. The immigrants who came to USA chose to stay and live as USA citizen. However, The USA Government asked them not to overlook their own culture, and to practice it daily. That is the reason on why USA is a multicultural country, since there are many cultural traditions from around the world in America. One of it is Denmark’s culture.

In order to preserve Denmark’s culture, Danish immigrants in the USA hold a ceremony called Danish Festival that usually held in Greenville, Michigan. The purpose of this Danish Festival event is to preserve the culture and educate anyone who has Danish blood or Danish immigrants about Denmark’s culture. Danish Festival was held for the first time on 18 August 1965. At first, in 1964, a contest was held in order to promote Greenville’s tourism, and the organizers promised some money to the winner of the contest. Mrs Dorothy Oliver won the contest by proposing a special day to reminisce the Denmark’s culture in Greenville.

Because of that contest, Danish Festival became a yearly ceremony, which is celebrated on the third week of August. Greenville, Michigan is picked as the city where this festival is held because of the strong root of Denmark’s culture in this city. Since there are many Danish immigrants and Danish offspring in Greenville, they are working together to organize the Danish Festival.

The enthusiasm for Danish Festival is surprisingly high. Therefore, in 1968, Danish Festival was registered as a non-profit organization, and it has a structure organization starting from the board of directors, staff, committee, to volunteer workers who work together to organize Danish Festival.

The latest Danish Festival was held on 17-20 August, with “The Fir Tree” (pine tree) as its main theme, inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s writing, which was published in 1844, titled “Grantræet” which told about a tale of a pine tree who was never happy about its life, since it grew as a little tree. It spent its life by only thinking about how it can grow bigger just like another pine trees and it always hoped to be chosen as a Christmas tree. Finally, one day it was chosen as a Christmas tree, but it felt lonely after it only ended up in the attic after Christmas. At last, it realized that it already had a good life and now it regret its decision to ask to become a Christmas tree. In the spring, it had already withered and it is being cut and burned.

The Danish Festival 2017 had so many events which were not only for people, but also for pets. Some of the events are Family Fun Day, which was an event for kids, Danish Festival Queen’s Pageant with Prince & Princess crowning for teens aged 17-24, Softball tournament for male and female, Danish Festival Band, Arts & Crafts Fair, Live Music, Special Lego Event, Danish Kids Crafts, Doggy Fashion Show, Hans Christian Andersen’s Theater “The Fir Tree”, and many more.

In Danish Festival, you can also taste some of delicious Danish’s food, pastries, cookies and biscuits, one of them is the popular Danish butter cookies. Danish butter cookies is a Denmark traditional cookies which has a soft yet crunchy texture, created with butter and sugar. Danish butter cookies has many flavor variations with a subtle and unique butter taste. Danish butter cookies is suitable to become a snack or a dessert. Danish butter cookies is not only popular in Denmark, but also in many countries, where one of them is the USA. In Washington DC, one of the popular Danish butter cookies brands is Danisa. Danisa has 5 flavor variations, which are Traditional Butter Cookies, Choco Cashew Butter Cookies, Currant Butter Cookies, Choco Filled Butter Cookies, and Pineapple Filled Butter Cookies.

Therefore, if you want to taste Danish butter cookies, but you have no time to visit Danish Festival in Greenville, Michigan, you can buy Danisa in many stores in America.