Store bededag: a Danish holiday

 Store bededag is a day I am always looking forward to at this time in the year. It always falls on the Friday four weeks after Easter Sunday. This year Store bededag is going to be on the 8th of May. Originally the day was enforced by bishop Hans Bagger in 1686 to dedicate time for praying. Store bededag literally means Great Prayer Day. I think that most Danes today connect the holiday to eating hveder which is a tradition that can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century. It is a wheat roll with a characteristic flavor of cardamom. One will probably notice that hveder are not as sweet as a traditional birthday bun. Why did this tradition for eating hveder appear?  

When Bishop Bagger enforced an extraordinary day for praying, nobody was allowed to work – not even the bakers who usually sold freshly baked bread. The night before Store bededag they made hveder, which could be eaten fresh and for toasting and eaten with butter the following days.  

Unfortunately I have not been able to find hveder in Sweden, so I decided to bake some myself. Below one can see my second attempt. 

Resource: https://www.folkekirken.dk/aarets-hoejtider/store-bededag