Hello, hygge

October 5, 2015 by Ray Morgan

Hello, hygge

In Denmark, hygge is a big part of life. If you've never heard of the word, it's not really got a direct translation into English - it's more a concept, a fundamental part of Scandinavian culture, that means 'cosiness' with friends or loved ones, with nice food and drinks. How great is that?!

It's amazing that a whole country holds great importance in getting out of work on time and spending quality time with people you love, preferably with beer/sausages/cakes, with candles on, while it rains outside. I think it's about taking time: something we don't do enough of.

In the age of smart phones, everybody has access to work emails on their phones and iPads, meaning that we're never really off duty. A lot of people - especially in commuter towns such as ours - spend a good couple of hours travelling before they get home, and then after grabbing some food, putting the kids to bed or catching up on some work it's pretty much time for bed before we start it all again - where's the quality of life in that?

I used to commute to London; I did it for five years, at one point going all the way to South Kensington and back, Monday to Friday. This meant 4 whole hours out of my day sitting up close and personal with strangers, sending scary dagger eyes at them for having their music up too loud/encroaching on my personal space with their germ-ridden Metro. It was no way to live - I get that people have to do it though, just like I did.

But the concept of hygge intrigues me - and makes me think we need more of that in this country. I'm not talking about drinking pint after pint down your local, as I'm not sure that's what hygge is about. Having people over for drinks, making your home cosy, or spending time relaxing, that's more what it's for.

On Saturday, my partner and I decided to take part in a bit of hygge ourselves. We enjoyed a glass of wine with a cheeseboard in a local restaurant in the afternoon, surrounded by twinkly candles, as it grew dark outside. It felt great - not a boozy session, just time to talk about our day, in a nice cosy atmosphere. I highly recommend that you try a bit of hygge and find out for yourselves why Danish people are often heralded the happiest people in the world.

My top 5 hygge-ish things to do:

1. Indulging in a Snowball while gathering round to watch a festive film.
2. Watching the Box of Delights (1980s kids TV classic!) with my sister every December with a pot of tea and PILE of cakes.
3. Going round to my parents where they bring out a tea tray in the cosy living room (and even have special coasters just for the run-up to Christmas)
4. Making a buffet-style spread and having friends over to play board games.
5. Drawing the curtains at home, putting candles on, and cracking open the port and cheese!