Cow mania

June has seen the arrival of cow mania. The latest art craze is called "Cow Parade", the world's largest public art event. It began in the late 1990s in Chicago and is spreading across the globe. London hosted a herd in 2002 and now it is the turn of Copenhagen. Cow sculptures are made for the local artists to "dress up" or paint, depicting events, cultural influences, cities or even individuals (or course there has already been an Elvis cow..). The cow parade is first and foremost a public art exhibit that is accessible to everyone.

Most importantly, Cow Parade benefits charity. At the conclusion of each event, the cows are herded up and many are auctioned, with a substantial portion of the proceeds benefiting charity. The Chicago auction raised an amazing USD 3 million for charity. The average bid price on the 140 cows in Chicago was nearly USD 25,000, with the top cow selling for USD 110,000.

Currently there are cows on display at many of the most popular places in Copenhagen including Kongens Nytorv, Nyhavn and at the site of the Little Mermaid. Amazingly, not one has been vandalised yet!

Also happening tonight (23rd June), is the annual midsummer celebration, in accordance with the Danish tradition of celebrating a holiday on the evening before the actual day (the traditional solstice used to be on 24 June under the Julian calendar). The solstitial (great word!) celebration in Denmark is called "Sankt Hans aften" (St. John's Eve). It is the day where the medieval wise men and women (the doctors of that time) would gather special herbs that they needed for the rest of the year to cure people. It has been celebrated since the times of the Vikings by visiting healing water wells and making a large bonfire to ward away evil spirits. Today the water well tradition is gone. Bonfires on the beach, speeches, picnics and songs are traditional, although bonfires are built in many other places too (eg on the shores of lakes, parks, etc.). In the 1920s a tradition of putting a witch made of straw and cloth on the bonfire emerged as a remembrance of the church's witchburnings from 1540 to 1693 (but unofficially witches were lynched as late as 1897). This burning sends the witch to Bloksbjerg, the mountain 'Brocken' in the Harz region of Germany where the great witch gathering was thought to be held on this day.

Libby and I have been invited by some Danish friends to one such bonfire party in Frederiksburg (west Copenhagen) but with a dodgy weather forecast the witch might yet be saved from being sent to Germany (surely the ultimate punishment). There is also a rather pathetic attempt of a bonfire developing on the inlet outside our flat in Nyhavn, on a sort of floating raft. Given the fact that most of the ships in the harbour, the harbour itself and our building (!) are wooden I hope it doesn't get out of control!