Famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen wrote the original Little Mermaid fairytale in 1837. Copenhagen’s most visited attraction honors the fairytale and displays a bronze statue of the Little Mermaid perched atop a rock in the sea. Since 1913, visitors have flocked to Copenhagen’s waterfront to see the famous mermaid in her home country. Annually on August 23, the Little Mermaid’s birthday, a crowd of women jump into the sea and swim around the statue to honor her and pretend that they are mermaids for a day.
