Danish Couple Make Mangaluru a Home Away from Home for Christmas Every Year, since 2003!
Danish Couple- Finn and Dorte Hougaard from Copenhagen-Denmark make Mangaluru a Home Away from Home for Christmas Every Year since 2003! And they celebrate it at Jasper and Sabrina Hougaard’s Home in Falnir-Mangaluru
Mangaluru: Choosing to holiday during Christmas season away from home is not a bad thing, if you are sure that you will like it and be happy than be sorry- and for that matter, since 2003 Danish Couple Finn, aged 63 and his wife Dorte Hougaard, aged 64 from Copenhagen-Denmark have been making their Christmas celebration happen at the house of Jasper ( Finn’s brother) and Ms Sabrina Hougaard, residing in Falnir-Mangaluru- and they love coming back year after, no matter what , even if there is a blizzard or heavy snowy weather prior to their flight journey from Copenhagen Airport-Kastrup, Denmark- and they do love the warm Mangaluru weather, rather than the blistering and freezing winter temperatures which reach 3°C or 4°C, even 0°C, back in their hometown. Ms. Dorte Hougaard is a social worker now, after retiring as head of a Danish Charity organisation, while her husband works as a mechanical engineer in a Danish medical company.
The Hougaard duo don’t even care if they miss their traditional and authentic Danish Christmas meal comprising of roast pork, boiled potatoes, red cabbage and gravy, although in recent times roast duck and goose have become popular. For dessert, the classic dish is ris à l’amande; cold rice pudding with whipped cream, vanilla, almonds and hot cherry sauce, or ‘risengrød’ (hot rice pudding). A peeled almond is hidden in the dessert bowl and the lucky finder of the almond gets a present. Menus might include traditional foods such as smoked salmon, herring or liverpâté with bacon and mushrooms. And Wash it all down with a Christmas beer, a celebratory glass of wine or, if you’re really brave, a shot of Christmas snaps.
But here in Mangaluru, the Finn and Dorte don’t mind feeding on traditional Mangalorean delicacies cooked by our “Kodiyalchi Botler” Ms Sabrina, comprising of Dukra Mass (Pork Bafat), Sannas, Chicken Vindaloo, Bimbli Saar, Rice- and also variety of Vegetarian dishes, which the Danish couple prefer the most. And the couple every time they come down from Denmark brings lots of Christmas ornaments to decor the Christmas tree and Sabrina’s house. A visit to Sabrina’s home at present is all decked up with Christmas decorations, and specially made candles that are lit by placing them on the Christmas tree on the Christmas eve, brought by the Danish duo. .
“We come here for two weeks every year to relive our childhood days and also celebrate the festival in the way we used to do it earlier. And also the main reason we want to get away from Copenhagen is to escape from the frigid and icy temperature. We love the Mangaluru weather and the friendly and courteous people here, who are also known for their kind hospitality” said Finn Hougaard, who is the eldest of three brothers of Jasper Hougaard ( who runs a spa business in Mangaluru). Other brother of Finn, is Joachim, aged 61, works for a company dealing with equipment for cleaning aid in Denmark. “I still remember the days when we [brothers] brought the Christmas tree for celebration to our home in Copenhagen,” recalls Finn’s brother Jasper Hougaard.
Ms.Sabrina Hougaard says they have brought small changes to the celebrations. Because of paucity of time after the Mass, they didn’t dance around the tree on Christmas eve. They also did not open gifts placed below the tree in the night, which they did only after breakfast on Tuesday Christmas Day morning. There is change in the menu too. Ms. Dorte Hougaard says they are not preparing the rice pudding, roasted goose, sugar-coated white potatoes, red cabbage and brown gravy “that are heavy for the weather here”. They have gone for fish curry, pork and mutton curry, daal, rice and other coastal food. “What ultimately matters is the joy of celebrating it here, which is immeasurable,” she says.
The Three Hougaard brothers (L-R) – Jasper, Joachim and Finn. Also seen in the same order when they were kids ( in the right photo)
Finn and Dorte Hougaard had come down to Mangaluru in 2003 to attend the wedding of Jasper and Sabrina, and since then they have been coming to Mangaluru every year, except they skipped their travel plan to India in 2004. Ms Dorte said that in Denmark, the great celebration is on the Christmas Eve ( 24th night), where they mingle with relatives and friends- and on 25th Christmas day, they get together for a sumptuous lunch, comprising of huge open Sandwich! A dish made of Herring fish is popular in Denmark, and is eaten at every occasion. Finn and Dorte were married at a late age, and they have no children.
When asked what they lie about India, Ms Dorte said, “We love the Indian Tourism slogan “Incredible India”- and that’s for real- since every place that we visited in India is incredible. They are amazing, unique and strange-just incredible! We love India very dearly and we plan to come back every year, when its snowing in Copenhagen. Apart from Tuborg beer which is an Copenhagen product, we love to drink Khoday’s Rum, which is incredible too. We wish we could take a few bottles of Khoday’s Rum to Denmark, but airlines rules restricts to do so.”
When asked what they have to say about Mangaluru, Finn said, “This City improves every year when we come by. Everyone is friendly, even the auto-rickshaw drivers and the shop owners/staff. Mangaluru is little cleaner than last year, but more has to be done to improve the cleanliness here. Sad to say that there is lots of Traffic chaos, not many people follow traffic rules, and its very inconvenient to walk on the streets. Other than that we love this Rome of the East”. The couple had arrived in Mangaluru on 16 December, and they left to Bangkok today ( 26 December) and will be celebrating New Year there, and will be back to Mumbai on 8th January 2019. They will tour few more places in India, and go back to their hometown in couple of weeks.