Copenhagenize.com - Bicycle Culture by Design: A Copenhagen Yule

Now here’s a shot that really hammers home a Copenhagen Yule moment. Dad transporting the family tree in his Danish cargo bike - in this case a Christiania Bike - on a lovely, wide bike lane.The Danish [and Swedish and Norwegian] word for Christmas is ‘jul’ which morphed into ‘yule’, etymologically speaking, in English. It’s the name of the original winter solstice festival that had existed for centuries before the Catholic church moved Jesus’ birthday to Decemeber in order to trump the celebrations of other cultures and faiths.Ironically, the word for wheel is ‘hjul’, pronounced just like ‘jul’ - both of which are pronounced much like ‘yule’. [Are you really still reading this?! :-)]So it is only appropriate that we wish our readers ‘Glædelig [H]jul’! - meaning all at once, Happy Christmas and Happy Wheel.:-)The dad in the photo above was followed by his two kids and wife - a happy family heading home to decorate the tree:


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