Everyone is invited to this year’s biggest celebration of love on Saturday, September 13, when five couples say their most important “yes” aboard the world’s largest reconstructed Viking ship, the Sea Stallion from Glendalough.
The Viking Ship Museum’s harbor in Roskilde sets the stage for The Big Day, part of the cultural-historical Golden Days Festival – this year under the theme “Love – a festival about the greatest thing of all.”
The ceremony will be led by DNA researcher Eske Willerslev, who will offer his take on a modern wedding speech for the couples. The actual marriage ceremony will be conducted by Roskilde’s mayor, Tomas Breddam. This marks the first time weddings are held aboard the Sea Stallion, and the ritual presents a new way of integrating culture and historical presence into a modern celebration of love.
Golden Days Festival
The weddings are part of The Big Day – a new love ritual within the Golden Days Festival, where ten museums host 50 cultural weddings. Here, love is celebrated in the spaces of art and culture – with ceremonies created by cultural figures who offer their interpretation of a modern love ritual. The goal is to turn the wedding into a public celebration and share one of life’s greatest moments in settings that transcend time and tradition.
What does it mean to say “yes” today – and why do we still seek rituals to mark love?
In a time when traditions are shifting and life choices are increasingly individual, The Big Day asks how we, as modern people, create meaning around love.
DNA researcher Eske Willerslev will lead the wedding ceremony and deliver a personal speech to the five couples. Drawing on his research into human genetic history, he will reflect on love as a force that has shaped human connections across time, cultures, and borders:
“Love and connections between people across boundaries have played a central role in creating the bonds we still share today.
It is an honor to help celebrate this deep connection to both past and present – and to honor love.”
A Public Celebration and Global Wedding – You’re Invited
At the Viking Ship Museum, The Big Day begins at 10:00 AM with free activities that make the day festive for everyone and allow love to meet history in a vibrant setting.
Free activities for the public:
10:00–13:30 – Free activities on the beach meadow in front of the Viking Ship Hall
- Spin your own thread of fate – inspired by Viking beliefs in the threads of life
- Bake birch bark biscuits with honey – a sweet greeting from the Viking Age
11:00 – Taste the love – local delicacies from Herslev Brewery, Snoremark, Copenhagen Mead, and more
12:00 – Talk by linguist Krister Vasshus on love and sex in the Viking Age
Wedding Ceremony on the Beach Meadow
13:00 – Welcome to The Big Day
Wedding ceremony: Five couples are led aboard the Sea Stallion
Speech by DNA researcher Eske Willerslev
Wedding officiated by Mayor Tomas Breddam
15:00–16:00 – Communal dancing on the beach meadow
Threads of Fate and Birch Bark Biscuits
In Viking times, it was believed that when a child was born, the goddesses of fate – Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld – would appear and spin the child’s life thread, a norn thread. The thread could be long or short, thick or thin, smooth or full of bumps – just like life itself.
The Big Day celebrates love at the Viking Ship Museum, and from 10:00 to 13:00, you can try your hand at the ancient craft and spin your own thread of fate from wool. Perhaps you’ll spin a thread that symbolizes a shared destiny with your partner or family – a thread that binds you together with strength, warmth, and hope. It can be both soft and strong, holding memories of the past, presence in the now, and dreams for the future.
Much of what we know about life in the Viking Age comes from archaeological studies of burial rituals. These reveal traces of the care people had for one another even back then. Sometimes small breads and cakes were placed in graves as symbols of life and love. On The Big Day, you can bake birch bark biscuits over an open fire. We’ve created a special festive and sweet version with honey. Share it with someone you love – as a symbolic start to your shared life, or perhaps as a reminder to yourself of strength and connection.
The Big Day – 10 Museums, 50 Couples, 100 Times “Yes”
The Big Day is part of the Golden Days Festival 2025, which this year centers around the theme of love. With 50 weddings across ten museums and cultural institutions, the festival explores how we mark love today – without necessarily relying on religious traditions:
“With The Big Day, we’re introducing a new love ritual for those who long for something ceremonial but not religious – and where there’s room for everyone,”
explains Golden Days director Svante Lindeburg in a press release from Golden Days.
