Setting: A cozy Copenhagen apartment, Christmas lights twinkling, snow falling lightly outside. Two friends—Mads (the superstitious one) and Lasse (the rational thinker)—are sharing gløgg and finishing up bowls of risalamande (Danish Christmas rice pudding).
Mads: (grinning, mouth half-full)
I knew I’d get the almond this year! That’s three years in a row now, Lasse! It’s a sign—I’m on a lucky streak. 2025 is going to be my year!
Lasse: (chuckling, sipping his gløgg)
Or maybe you just took a suspiciously large serving of pudding. That bowl was practically almond-hunting.
Mads:
Come on, don’t ruin the magic! The almond is sacred. It’s not just a game—it’s tradition. Whoever finds it gets a prize and good luck for the whole year.
Lasse:
A prize, yes. Usually a box of chocolates or a marzipan pig. But luck? That’s a bit of a stretch, mate.
Mads:
You say that now, but remember last year when I got the almond? I won that trip to Iceland the very next month. Coincidence? I think not.
Lasse:
Mads, you also entered 47 online giveaways that week. Statistically, one of them was bound to hit. It’s not luck—it’s math.
Mads: (waving a spoon)
No, it’s fate. And I’ll prove it! In 2019, I didn’t get the almond—guess what happened? I slipped on black ice and cracked my phone and my pride in one fall.
Lasse: (laughing)
That’s not bad luck, that’s Danish winter. Happens to the best of us. I slipped that same week, almond or no almond.
Mads:
So you admit it! Even you weren’t spared.
Lasse:
Because friction doesn’t care if you found an almond. Look, I love the tradition too. It’s fun, it brings people together, and it adds some mystery. But believing that a hidden nut dictates your destiny? That’s giving too much power to a piece of marzipan.
Mads: (mock-offended)
You take that back. The marzipan pig is a symbol—of sweetness and prosperity.
Lasse:
Okay, okay. But don’t you think it’s more meaningful when you make your own luck? Like, you planned that Iceland trip. You saved for it. You clicked “submit” on the contest. That wasn’t some almond working overtime—that was you.
Mads: (pauses, then grins)
So… you’re saying I’m the good luck?
Lasse: (smiling)
Exactly. The almond’s just the cherry—or nut—on top. It gives you a story. You give it the meaning.
Mads: (shrugs)
Maybe. But let me have my superstition. Life’s more fun when you believe in a little magic. Science can’t explain everything, you know.
Lasse:
True. Like how you keep beating me at Scrabble despite spelling “fjord” with a ‘ph’ once.
Mads:
That was clearly the almond working through me.
Lasse:
Or maybe you’ve just had enough gløgg to bend reality. Either way—congrats on the almond. May 2025 bring you luck, magic, or… at least fewer phone screens to replace.
Mads: (raising his spoon)
To almonds, accidents, and all the nonsense that makes life delicious.
Lasse: (clinking his glass)
Skål to that.
[Fade to laughter and clinking glasses as snow continues to fall outside.]
Science Vs Superstition 
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