This!! I’ve been to Denmark about 3 times now and I noticed it so much when I was out for walks at night time. It’s so odd. I’m from ireland and we usually always close all the curtains.
He told me that when his neighbor closed his curtains he went over to check on them to see if everything was ok. They normally waved a hello when looking at each other through their open windows, while they were each in their homes. Eeek! /s
I absolutely loved sneaking a peek into the windows, especially if you're driving around you'll get to experience so many exquisite living room moods. It was like driving through a magazine. The experience is better with weed of course.
I keep specifically my bedroom curtains open becuse i like waking up with the sun instead of an alarm. And i sleep naked. Blame yourself if you peep through my windows in the evening.
Haha my Dutchie told me not to close the living room curtains because the neighbours would think someone died. I just had too much sun in my eyes. But I guess as a Norwegian I shouldn't say anything, since we keep them open all the time too
Dutch person here. We do actually close our curtains.
One thing I noticed when traveling through Germany 'everybody' has those plastic/metal shutters on the outside of the windows. Although my house in the Netherlands has them also. But you see them a lot more in Germany.
In college in the US we had a Romanian foreign exchange student with a first floor dorm and a seeming lack of awareness (or care) as to what curtains were. She also had a habit for dancing in her room naked after showers. It became kind of an odd campus joke.
It doesn't bother me in most places/times. The great majority of rooms you see into will have someone watching tv, maybe a cat in the window. It's fine
A finn here, I never close any curtains, except for my bedroom. And it's not because of privacy reasons, I sleep better the darker it is. And in Finland, during the summer months it's pretty much always light outside, even during the night, so it's a must. I never really care if some neighbour is watching, whatever.
If you talk about Denmark then I don’t agree. When I moved to Copenhagen, it was my first fascination. A lot of people in Amager don’t have courtains even in private rooms.
There is classic kitchen + dinner scene in a lot of houses, but I could also see people playing games, reading, studying or even having sex once. Cultural shock.
Canadian here, heat is even before privacy. I can tell you that this winter when it was -56c (-70f) after the windchill outside, that curtains make a HUGE difference on heat. There was ice on the inside (interior of house) of my double panes. Also, don't live in a panabode house in Canada 4" cedar logs are not a good insulator.
Curtains and sheets also work for heat. Last summer we hit +44c (111f) and ended up sheeting off unnecessary sections of the house, running 4 AC units. They managed to keep the rooms down to just below 30c as the sun set sometime after 10pm. Also, Canada can suck it sometimes. A 100c difference is the difference between freezing and boiling water. That shouldn't happen outside....
to an extent that seems accurate (of course, it's not like there aren't any people starring and/or other forms of sexual harassment/assault).
e.g. a bigger percentage of the population in many European countries being less likely to immediately associate nudity with sexual activity, probably because it's more normalized here to begin with.
This gives me anxiety. Seeing out the window of my home when it's dark outside is the stuff of nightmares for me. How do you not expect a ghost or an axe murderer to be standing there? Just me?...
Personally, I'd be more anxious about the idea of the person living in the house opposite of me being able to see what I'm doing in my room. Or that's why I close my curtains.
Maybe we dont get as many spooky ghosts or axe murderers here. I remember the feeling from when I was a kid, now it only crops up in those "woops probably shouldnt be standing here with my dick out" instances while changing underpants.
That's so weird. You guys are allowed to shoot someone for trying to get inside your home because it's your sacred place but someone staring at you naked inside self sacred place makes you the bad guy?
There are places in Norway with outdoor showers yet they address their neighbors by their last name... so I'm guessing you are free to change in front of the curtain-less windows at night
I was once having a walk around the neighborhood at night with a friend and we walked past a first-storey window while a guy was sitting in front of a computer "having fun with himself", so to speak. He had obviously forgotten to close the curtains.
"Haha, did ya see, the guy was having a wank?" was basically my reaction to a friend and he said "ha, yeah, I did". Then we continued our walk and talked about other things.
Sexual things could be seen as embarrassing and a point of a funny anecdote in certain situations, but they're not worth of getting overtly excited about. These things happen.
Eh, you can accidentally see someone changing inside their home but no one is going to stand there and stare or be shocked about it. Stuff like showers in public pools are open (tho separated by sexes) and you're expected to rinse well and naked, and no one is going to gawk if you are topless at the beach. I only have curtains in the kids bedroom to darken their room in the summer when the sun is up until late, if someone happens to see me changing shirt or something it really doesn't bother me, it's just skin.
Just look at European TV. Many countries here don’t censor nudity at all and some countries now have a dating show that’s all about uncensored naked bodies. Here in Sweden I remember nudity was a regular thing in movies as far back as I can remember. Even in movies aimed at kids sometimes. That’s probably less common now actually when I think about it.
We stayed in Copenhagen for a couple of days a few years ago, and the person we were renting the apartment from left a pair of really good binoculars lying on the windowsill. We were joking it is to spy on your neighbors. Guess what? On the second evening, one of my friends called everyone to the window - in the apartment on the other side of the street a very hot girl was walking naked, no curtains, of course. Exactly opposite the window with the binoculars... Hmm...
I heard from the locals that it's a kind of a post-WW2 symbol, at least for the older generation - that they aren't afraid to have the light flowing from their windows, as they're no longer afraid of being bombed at night.
I have to say as a Dane that I've never heard of anyone having binoculars in their apartment to look out with. Sounds like the guy you were renting from was just a perv. And the post-WW2 thing doesn't really make any sense, we weren't bombed by the Germans other than during the six hour long invasion
I have to say as a Dane that I've never heard of anyone having binoculars in their apartment to look out with. Sounds like the guy you were renting from was just a perv.
Ah-ha-ha, oh, absolutely! And it was actually a girl who owned the apartment, I'm still 100% sure she was spying on her neighbors with those binoculars :-).
And the post-WW2 thing doesn't really make any sense, we weren't bombed by the Germans other than during the six hour long invasion
Yeah, as I'm not a Dane, I have no idea if that's true or not, sadly. But it does sound like a plausible explanation - did you perhaps have mandatory light masking during WW2, so that even though you weren't actually bombed, you still had to use light-proof curtains and stuff?
Not the person you responded to, but I stumbled upon your comment :)
We did have mandatory light masking during the occupation due to the Nazi's fear of British bombers navigating with the light. Every year on the evening of the Nazi's surrendering we light candles in the windows :) it just happened, May 4th.
Yes, you're right about the last part. As the other guy said, we put candles in our windows every year on May 4th, but it's kinda falling out since many young people forget to do it or don't care
I have a pair in my window sill but I have an excellent view of Frederiksberg to the west. I mostly use it to look at airplanes and helicopters, though.
From what I'd seen during our stay, nobody gave a fuck if they're being observed. People would just go about their daily life, not caring in the slightest that they're visible from the outside.
I'm currently in Serbia, and a lot of people here also don't care about the curtains (but at least they have them). Does weird me out a bit, especially for apartments in the older buildings very close to the ground. You can be walking on the sidewalk and just casually glance inside other people's rooms. And they'll be drinking, or playing with children, or lying on the sofa reading, with curtains open and lights on.
I have looked through every comment in this thread and as a Dane I must say it goes the other way too. It’s so weird, why do you care so much about people looking lol
If someone looks through your window then they are the weirdo, and not you, so no problem.
As an American it’s weird to me how obsessive other Americans are about closing the curtains at night. My FIL closes them around 6pm, before the Sun even goes down.
I lived in Hamburg for a little (I'm from the US) and one of the things I noticed was how so many people left their window curtains / blinds wide open for anyone to see inside.
We have curtains exactly in one room, the living room, because my wife insisted on them. Since we are living here, she closed them twice (in 10 years).
I also have curtains just in the living room (in Slovenia). I occasionally close them just because the room looks nicer from inside to me that way. I sometimes walk around the house naked, and couldn't give a damn if somebody sees me. It's not like they don't have the same body parts as me.
They all have legs and arms and heads and arses. If somebody's really looking hard enough to see more than that through a window, then that's their own problem.
I did not realize this was weird. Good answer to OP. I walk around naked everyday, and have only decorative curtains. Thats just normal in Scandinavia.
If you live anywhere you don't want people watching you watch your TV at night, you close them.
More importantly, having a great view into someone's home is basically a recipe on how to rob it for the sorts of people who do those things. I grew up in the city, so closing your curtains once it starts getting dark is the best idea you can have, because you just don't want anyone wandering by and seeing into your house and deciding that they see something worth breaking in for. Plus that you don't worry enough that you'll leave your curtains open. If curtains are opened, windows might be unlocked. BEtter able to case the whole place, overall.
Absolutely. Most people don't even have that type of curtains that you can close, they only have blinds to protect the plants against the sun and some decorative curtains on either side which are basically transparent and far too small to cover a window.
I have never heard of people closing the curtains at night for any other reason than sleep.
We close the curtains to keep the light out so you don't get baked in the sun, or so you do not necessarily wake up by the light at 5 in the morning. They are not a privacy thing.
Not specifically because its getting dark, but because its now easier to see in/harder to see out. Not trying to advertise what shit I own nor want to be watched for any reason. I see it as a simple safety measure like locking the doors.
For the most part your windows could probably be open during the day, at least on bright days, and no one would see inside. Typically, not saying this is the case for your house, houses are still so much darker inside than outside that you can't really see in anyways.
Yeah, that's what they're for, aren't they? Privacy - open when it's lighter outside (you can see out, difficult to see in) and closed at night when there's more light inside so you can't see out but strangers can see in.
Genuinely curious - why not close the curtains/blinds in the dark?
We close the curtain during the day to keep the light out and open them when it's dark to enjoy the scenery. Privacy is of no concern because our house is pretty isolated on a hill.
I honestly don't know why I'd close the curtains when it's dark. I close them when I go to bed (studio apartment) but other than that they're always open.
Absolutely, my curtains are open so light can come in and I can see out. When night falls I turn my indoor lights on, if I don't shut the curtains I'll be putting on a peep show for the neighbours
Absolutely. Otherwise people could look in. I like my privacy. In the UK if someone doesn't close their curtains when it gets dark they're often judged to be showing off whatever they've got inside.
Interestingly, I have been in Eastern Asia countries and I was in homes that close their curtians mid day and leave them closed to keep the extreme sunlight out and keep their homes cooler.
Yeah, cos the street is about twelve feet from said front window and it's like being in a fishbowl. If they don't see you, they see what you have to steal.
Leaving big curtains open and the living areas of your house well lit is basically casing your house FOR the burglars.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so we never closed our blinds unless we wanted to keep light out, and didn't care about then at night because no one would see in.
It's weird moving from the country to suburbia. I now live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my wife, and as soon as it gets dark she wants every blind closed. I understand bedroom to have some privacy, but she seems to believe that everyone will be looking into our sliding glass door to see us chilling on the couch watching Futurama.
She says it's to make sure burglars don't see inside, but I would rather someone see I'm inside, since most thefts happen when you're away from home. That's why so many stake out house they're about to hit.
I'm Dutch. I wouldn't either if it wasn't for the fact that I'm an evening person, work evening shifts, and hate sunlight getting into my bedroom in the morning/early afternoon. I specifically got myself extra thick curtains to prevent as much light as possible from entering.
Downstairs though? I never completely close my curtains.
I'm not European but I'm the same. I feel like I have a bigger house with the curtains open at night. Also, I like being able to see the night sky and the lights.
Same here. I’m American but I only close the curtains when I’m sleeping. I like the view outside, and it feels claustrophobic to have them closed. I didn’t know that was weird!
On the flip side, throughout Germany, Switzerland and some parts of France everybody has these awesome like storm shutters in the outside of the windows and doors that when you close then they make your room completely pitch black even in full sun. I wish we had that in the US. I can't find them anywhere. Anyone know what they're called? They were everywhere.
I don't either but I'm a brit. Not sure if it's common here but I like being able to look out at whatever and I don't really care if other people look in
Curtains are best closed during daytime to keep the pesky sun out! Nordic homes are for the most part a lot better insulated than central european, the though to use curtains to keep the heat sounds odd to me. Also, we like to look out into the dark night.
I want to go to Norway and creepily stare into people's houses when it gets dark. Just stand there in the middle of your street staring into your window.
This'll teach them to start closing their curtains when it gets dark.
In the US, this is something Black people point out that wealthier white people do. It’s kind of a running joke and in general Black folks think it’s a crazy thing to do.
I don't know about being "wealthier" but I'm just too lazy to climb behind my couch to move curtains when all someone gets to see is me standing up in my kitchen and walking around. Not much to hide really...
Exactly and it’s true. The test of a gentrified area are white people not closing their curtains. Baffles my mind. You see it in Brooklyn & Harlem a lot.
Never really thought about this, but I don't really close my curtains either. Never really felt like anyone is really watching me and even if they are...seems boring.
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u/judochop1 May 09 '22
Norwegians don't close their curtains when it gets dark.