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The hottest competitive sport in Denmark over the past year hasn\u2019t been handball, or football, or badminton.\xa0It\u2019s been chasing cheap butter in the supermarket.

Recent inflation has doubled the price of butter \u2013 in some places, up to 30 kroner \u2013 but if you rush, you can get\u2026a package of butter for 10 kroner at one supermarket\u2026wait, only three packages per customer\u2026hey, this competing supermarket has matched the price\u2026look, this other one has it for only 5 kroner\u2026ohhhhhh, it\u2019s sold out for today. Better come earlier tomorrow.

Butter chasing is how even high-achieving, high-earning Danes have been spending their time. Nobody wants to pay 30 kroner for butter.

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Butter is a part of the Danish soul. The Danish word for butter is\xa0sm\xf8r\u2026you might be familiar with\xa0sm\xf8rrebr\xf8d, the famous open-faced Danish sandwiches.\xa0Sm\xf8rrebr\xf8d\xa0means buttered bread.

So even though inflation has hit Denmark recently just like everyplace else in the world, supermarkets use low, low butter prices to bring in customers who will buy their other goods.

Butter is big business in Denmark \u2013 it is one of the world\u2019s top 10 butter exporters \u2013 and dairy in general is a big part of the traditional Danish diet.

There used to be corner shops called\xa0mejeri, dairy shops, that only sold dairy goods and eggs.

Evolutionists would tell you that Scandinavians evolved to get more Vitamin D from food, since they don\u2019t get much from the sun for most of the year.

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If you\u2019re learning Danish, look up all the expressions that begin with the word \u201csm\xf8r.\u201d I counted about 30 in Den Danske Ordbog, Denmark\u2019s official online dictionary.

One well-known expression is\xa0sm\xf8rgris \u2013 butter pig. That\u2019s someone who loves butter so much that they eat great amounts of it, with gusto.

Or\xa0sm\xf8rhul, butter hole. A butter hole takes its name from the hole in the middle of a bowl of oatmeal. You make a hole so you can put the butter inside.

But\xa0sm\xf8rhul\xa0has a bigger meaning.

A \u201dbutter hole\u201d or sm\xf8rhul, is a way to describe a very nice place, safe from the tumultuous world around it.

A \u201cbutter hole\u201d is the way many Danes see Denmark itself.

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This is the 121th episode of the "How to Live in Denmark podcast", and originally ran in 2023.

Get all of Kay Xander Mellish's books about Denmark at http://books.howtoliveindenmark.com. Book Kay for a talk to your group or organization at http://events.howtoliveindenmark.com.