What you need to know for the test
- Folkekirken is Evangelical Lutheran and is supported by the state according to Grundloven (the Danish constitution); its members pay church tax.
- About 71 percent of the population were members of folkekirken in 2025, and membership is voluntary.
- Grundlovsdag (Constitution Day) on 5 June celebrates the constitution of 1849 – otherwise Denmark has no real official national day.
- H.C. Andersen (1805-75) from Odense is Denmark's most famous author; his fairy tales have been translated into more than 125 languages.
- Karen Blixen wrote Out of Africa (Den Afrikanske Farm, 1937), and Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is the most prominent Danish composer.
- Arne Jacobsen designed the chairs the Series 7 (7'eren) and the Egg (Ægget); Danish design is associated above all with functionalism.
- Dogme 95 (1995) was a film manifesto written by, among others, Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg.
- N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783-1872) inspired the folk high school movement; the first folk high school opened in Rødding in 1844.
Holidays and special days
Over the course of the year, a number of religious holidays and special days are celebrated in Denmark. Many have Christian roots, but several mix Christianity with old folk tradition.
- Fastelavn (carnival) is a spring festival that falls seven weeks before Easter. Children dress up in costumes and take turns hitting a barrel filled with sweets and fruit, and whoever breaks the barrel is called the cat king or cat queen.
- Easter marks that Jesus was crucified, died and rose from the dead. People give each other Easter eggs and often eat lamb. Easter falls in March or April each year.
- Whitsun (pinse) celebrates that the Holy Spirit, according to the Bible, came to earth. It falls seven weeks after Easter.
- Grundlovsdag on 5 June celebrates Denmark's democratic constitution of 1849 with gatherings and speeches. Read more about the constitution and rights.
- Sankthans (Midsummer Eve) is celebrated on the evening of 23 June with bonfires. The festival marks midsummer and is a mixture of pagan folk tradition and Christianity.
- Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. On Christmas Eve, 24 December, families gather, eat together and give each other presents, and most people dance around the Christmas tree and sing Christmas hymns. 25 and 26 December are called First and Second Christmas Day.
To these can be added 1 May, the international day of the labour movement, and New Year's Eve on 31 December, which is celebrated with parties and fireworks all over the country.
Folkekirken and freedom of religion
Folkekirken is the Evangelical Lutheran (Protestant) church in Denmark. Grundloven states that it is supported by the state. Members pay a special church tax of typically around 1 percent – a kind of membership fee to the church. About 71 percent of the population were members of folkekirken in 2025. Membership is voluntary, and you can leave at any time.
There has been freedom of religion in Denmark since the constitution was introduced in 1849. Everyone is free to practise their religion, change religion or choose not to be religious. Only the monarch is not covered by freedom of religion: Grundloven states that the king must belong to the Evangelical Lutheran church – read more under the royal house. A parish is led by a parish council (menighedsråd), and folkekirken also registers births, naming and deaths on behalf of the state. Islam is the second-largest religion in Denmark.
Grundtvig and the folk high schools
The priest and hymn writer N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783-1872) had a decisive influence on Danish self-understanding. Central to his thinking was the concept of folkelighed (roughly, the spirit of the people): society should be rooted in the broad population, and through enlightenment everyone should become part of the national community.
Grundtvig's ideas became the foundation of the folk high school movement. At the folk high schools, students were not to learn by rote or take exams, but to 'learn for life' through 'the living word', lectures and communal singing. The first Grundtvigian folk high school opened in 1844 in Rødding in Southern Jutland. The folk high school songbook, Højskolesangbogen, has been published since 1894 and contains many of the more than 1,500 hymns and songs Grundtvig wrote. It is above all thanks to Grundtvig's efforts in the Constituent Assembly that the Danish church became a people's church and never a state church.
Literature, music, design and film
Denmark's most famous author is H.C. Andersen (1805-75), who was born in Odense. His fairy tales – including 'The Little Mermaid' and 'The Ugly Duckling' – have been translated into more than 125 languages. Karen Blixen (1885-1962) is world-famous for Out of Africa (Den Afrikanske Farm, 1937), about her life on a coffee farm in Kenya. The composer Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is regarded as the most prominent Danish composer ever and is one of the best-known composers in Højskolesangbogen.
Danish design is associated above all with functionalism, a way of designing that emphasises practical function and simplicity. Well-known names are Poul Henningsen (the PH lamp), Børge Mogensen (furniture) and Arne Jacobsen (1902-71), who designed the chairs the Series 7 and the Egg and drew, among other buildings, Danmarks Nationalbank (the Danish central bank) and Aarhus City Hall. Jørn Utzon designed the iconic opera house in Sydney, and Bjarke Ingels' studio BIG is behind Amager Bakke (Copenhill) in Copenhagen.
In film, Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, together with two other directors, wrote the manifesto Dogme 95 in 1995: they committed themselves to making simple films with a focus on a good story rather than technical effects. Thomas Vinterberg won an Oscar in 2021 for the film Druk (Another Round). The TV series Matador is the most watched TV series in Denmark ever.
Association life, volunteering and sport
Denmark is characterised by a rich association life (foreningsliv). Around 90 percent of the population are members of at least one association, and on average every Dane is a member of three or four associations or organisations. Around 35 percent have done voluntary work through an association. Association life works as training in democracy – read more on the page about democracy and government by the people.
Volunteers play a very large role in cultural and leisure life, not least in sport, where thousands of volunteers act as coaches for children who play football, handball and other sports. Danish sport also has notable international results: Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France in 2022, and the men's national handball team won the World Championship in January 2023. Voluntary work is normally a supplement to the public services of the welfare society – not a replacement.
If you are unsure about a term, you can look it up in the glossary, and you can read about the format and requirements of the test in the guide to the 2026 citizenship test.