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April Fools’ Day round-up in Denmark

Christian Wenande
April 1st, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Some tall tales were more creative than other in the news today

If you’ve noticed an obscene number of ridiculous stories today, take a peek at the calendar and you’ll have your reason. As it is April 1, you’ve entered the realm of April Fools’ Day.

From naked yoga deals and nudist football teams to driver-less ships and drug-sniffing cats, there were a host of tall tales in the Danish news today.

Ferry operator DFDS tried to convince its customers it was launching driver-less ferries on its Oslo routes, while web solutions firm Decato went all out in its efforts to make people believe in a new chewing gum pregnancy test called GraviGum. They even went as far as making a website and a video.

Butts in the gym
The fitness companies in Denmark also got in on the act. FitnessDK revealed that it was mounting selfie sticks on its cardio machines, while Fitness World unveiled plans for a new nude yoga fitness program.

BT tabloid wrote that Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik had hired a French relationship therapist named Monsieur Poisson D’Avril in a bid to save their marriage and DanmarksBloggen broke the dubious news that the Little Mermaid had been sold to China.

Kristelight Dagblad wrote that Pope Francis was prepared to make Martin Luther a saint after 500 years of strife, while Historie.dk was adamant that Hitler and other leading Nazis had indeed escaped to Argentina after WWII.

Blue Balls FC
The folk music festival Tønder Festival broke the news that Justin Bieber would headline their festival this year and North Zealand Police revealed it had finally found a new member of its drug-sniffing department: a cat named Hank who can get to those places dogs can’t reach.

Perhaps one of the more creative bids came from Videnskab.dk, which claimed a clause in the original sale of the Virgin Islands from Denmark to the US meant that Denmark could buy them back within 100 years of the sale in 1917.

DBU Jutland no doubt cracked a few smiles with its news that Denmark’s first nudist team ‘Blue Balls FC’ was starting up in Jutland, while Ingeniøren wrote that the Transport Ministry was ready to adopt virtual reality as a way to get a driving licence.

Finally, Berlingske wrote that in the future, aeroplane passengers would have to pay a fee for every extra kilo they weigh over 105 kilos.

The Copenhagen Post has also written a wee tall tale today. We’ll leave it to our readers to uncover the sneaky culprit. It shouldn’t prove too difficult.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”