Hygge, a Danish concept that rolls up a sense of belonging, relaxation and enjoyment into one simple word, is the latest trend to promise happier homemaking. Here are some items to bring hygge to your everyday life.
Forget about feng shui or any life-changing magic in tidying up. The current big thing is hygge (pronounced hoo-ga), a Danish concept that evokes the feeling, roughly speaking, of cozying up with friends or family around a crackling fire or at least a few flickering candles.
Hygge is a word that rolls up a sense of belonging, relaxation and enjoyment into one comfy package — or better yet, into one cuddly blanket. Add warm socks, a snug nook and three or four people who like you just as you are. Make sure you have ambient lighting, coffee and cake.All those things are hygge, and you use them to hygge. The word can be verb, noun and adjective.
We know this concept; we just haven’t had a word for it. Now we do. This ancient Scandinavian word can also be made into compounds: Sit in your hyggekrog(nook), wearing your hyggesokker (socks). You can make it past tense, as when you ask your spouse, after guests have left, if he thought they hyggede (enjoyed) themselves.
Don’t even attempt to pronounce that one, says author Meik Wiking in “The Little Book of Hygge” (HarperCollins). You needn’t be able to say all the iterations of the word to feel it.
Wiking (pronounced Viking) writes that hygge originates from an even older word meaning well-being. It may share a common etymology with the English word “hug.”
Danes usually top happiness rankings by the European Social Survey. Danish citizens also meet most often with friends and family; nearly 80 percent of Danes socialize a minimum of once a week, compared with an average of 60 percent for other Europeans. Other studies highlight this link between personal happiness and spending time with loved ones. No surprise, then, that hygge incorporates “authenticity, warmth, and togetherness,” writes Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen.
Who better than the Danes, who know a few things about cold and darkness, to turn this antidote to winter into a cultural phenomenon? Hygge intensifies if a storm is raging outside while you’re cozied up in your hygge-house with a hot drink. Hot drinks, especially coffee, are the thing Danes most associate with hygge, Wiking reports.
Of course, the flip side of long, dark winter nights is long, light-filled summer ones. How does that jibe with hygge?
It is hygge to picnic on the beach, read beneath a tree or barbecue with friends, Wiking writes.
You could also get summer hygge by picking fruit and making jam with friends. Sunlight dappling through leaves is hygge.
Light, in general, is critical to hygge, whatever the season. It’s not just candles, though Danes burn more candles per capita than anyone else in Europe. Well-designed lamps and light fixtures cast warm pools of pleasing light; place them thoughtfully, and bathe in the hyggelig glow.
Originally ran in Chicago Tribune, February 2017
