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THE DANISH WORD ‘hygge’ has been roughly translated as “the art of cosy living” – a way of enjoying the moment, relaxing and being happy in your everyday life.
In September of this year, nine books were published on the subject, as interest surged in the Danish philosophy to achieving happiness.
A book by Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, is among them.
He uses much broader terms to describe the concept, including “the art of creating a good atmosphere”, “socialising for introverts”, or “the secret to everyday happiness”.
“Let me explain one of my experiences of hygge,” he told TheJournal.ie during a promotion of his book in Dublin.
“I was in Sweden with my friends, it was December, we had been out hiking during the day, we went back just before sunset. We were just relaxing, we had a fire going, we made a stew on the stove, and then my friend said ‘Could this be any more hyggeish?’ And one of them answered ‘Yes, if there was a storm outside!’
So hygge is also about being sheltered, but I think the key ingredients are togetherness, relaxation, sense of comfort, a sense of security, gratitude, anti-materialism, and simple pleasures.
Although Wiking says that hygge is anti-materialistic, the interior design aspect is a branch of hygge, especially for Danes, who “because of the weather, spend a lot of time in our homes”.
“Denmark has the highest sale of candles in Europe – twice the number of the second highest Austria. Of course that is consuming, but it’s not luxury – it’s not oysters and champagne. You can walk into an expensive restaurant and say ‘Ahh, should we find a place that’s more hygge-ish?’.”
“It’s not a lifestyle trend for us, it’s been the same for the past hundred years.”
One of the most hygge experiences was being with friends’ parents’ apple orchard, where we were sitting on plastic stools, in horrible lighting, where we had been out picking fruit and riding all day and we were tired and we were having whiskey in the middle of August.
“Because it was relaxing, enjoying the moment, having a nice trip.”
There is only so far hygge can take you, though.
Wiking says that happiness begins with genetics, saying that twins display the same levels of happiness.
Happiness levels are also strongly connected to government and its policies – with universal healthcare, free tuition for college fees and gender equality contributing highly to the happiness levels of all Scandinavian countries.
But hygge is what separates Denmark above other countries with these factors that create a high rate of happiness among citizens.
He says that the Danes are amazed that there is such interest in their small country’s way of doing things – not just across Europe, but in Thailand, the US and Canada as well.
But why the interest?
“I was in South Korea earlier this month and I think they are the poster child for what’s happening – they have had a tremendous increasing wealth in the past few years, but have failed to convert that into wellbeing.
“You have extremely high-levels of standard of living, the highest rate in terms of education, highest level of human development of southeast Asia. Coming from Seoul to Copenhagen was almost like coming back to a third world country: the metro is far better in Seoul.
“But the quality of life is struggling. 60-hour work weeks, tremendous pressure at the office, intense competition in terms of wealth and beauty, and the highest suicide rate in the OECD. They’ve gotten richer but not happier.
I think there’s a global arms race of wealth on at the moment, everyone wants to earn more, it’s a bit ‘Keeping up with the Joneses – we compare it to what our peers are earning instead of what we actually need to get by.
But it’s much more difficult to measure happiness than it is to measure wealth – we know if we work more hours, we can earn more money, whereas it’s not as easy to measure exactly how happy we are.
“We know that there is a link between wealth and happiness, but that link does not continue in a relationship that goes on forever. Once you have met your basic financial needs, that link becomes decoupled.
For a lot of us, additional income will not impact our daily lives, so it makes more sense to focus on other areas in our lives, like our relationships, like hobbies, like relaxation, health, or taking a break.
“It’s a difficult question to answer, but what you need to ask yourself to be happy is – what is important to me, and change your aims to reach that.”
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“I’ve got an embarrassment of cancer, the full English. There is barely a morsel of offal not included. I have a trucker’s gut-buster, gimpy, malevolent, meaty malignancy,”. A true master of the English language. Adrian Gill did not hold back in deploying his unique command of words to look death in the eye and find a moment of amusement.
RIP. Filthy awful obscene disease cancer. Seems to me to be coming out of the walls these days is there more and more of it occurring or is it just that more and more of it’s being diagnosed?
sometimes it seems that cancer is winning too many times …
@Suzie Sunshine: seems to me that the basic strategy is to throw bags of poison into you until they either kill all the bad cells or all the good cells. Cancer is strongly associated with inflammation. I wonder would attempting to reduce all sources of inflammation both in diet and the air we breathe and the things we do would be a good thing. And legalise the use of THC derived medicaments. Tetrahydrocannabinol seems to work against cancer by recognising and targeting the cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct, while leaving the good cells unharmed. As some advanced chemos also do. But of course there isn’t huge profits, royalties, shareholder value, in a simple plant that grows in nature.
If I had the Big C I wouldn’t give a toss I’d grow away to my heart’s content what medicine I needed and if the cops came through the door I’d say ”Nothing ye can do to me is as bad as this disease so I’ll pick my battles and fight them as I see fit.”
@John O’Driscoll: If you live long enough… you’ll probably get a cancer. It”s a cell mutation.
We just live longer. Other stuff doesn’t get us as much. We survive or prevent heart disease more. Less industrial accidents.
Something has to get you in the end.
Great statement.
@John O’Driscoll: You are probably right, over the past decade since CT scans are now available in our hospitals. Doctors can now recognise parts of the body affected by cancer. The doctors probably told him that his days were numbered if the disease had spread into other parts of the body other than his neck which sounds like a swollen lymphoma indicating problems with his immune system. Pity it hadn’t have been recognised sooner then it could probably have been treated.
To make things worse, too much exposure to CT scans can also bring cancers caused by radiation exposure in later life. I myself had 4 CT scans this year and the radiologist wouldn’t perform anymore telling me a person shouldn’t really have more than 4 or 5 in a lifetime……
@Darragh O Meara: Man you must be glowing, keep away from kids and pregnant women
“If you live long enough” …….?
Thanks for all replies that were informative.
An excellent writer and his exchanges with J. Clarkson were very amusing.
His book ‘AA Gill is away’ is well worth a read. He was a great travel writer too.
Sad news indeed.
I was with my wife and a group of friends on a barge on the Canal du Midi a few years ago. AA Gill was with Jeremy Clarkson and we kept encountering them at stops along the way.
AA Gill was thoroughly enjoying himself, embracing life with zest and an open generous spirit. He smoothed over a few incidents when Clarkson was getting a little stroppy. AA Gill was surprisingly open and full of joy. He treated all people he met with humour, civility and genuine interest.
What distinguished him was that he treated all that he met with a wonderful accepting respect. He treated all staff with the proper respect and put inexperience people at their ease. Because AA Gill could be acerbic and given to quite a lot of asperity in his writing, it surprised me how equanimious and affable he was.
I suspect that he lived far more years in life’s riches and variety than many who have lived much longer lives. He was no “little Englander”, he had an immense curiosity and showed no signs of judgmentalism.
Very interesting post Michael, it’s easy to assume that writers write as a reflection of themselves, but it is not often the case same as comedians aren’t always humourous in their personal and private life. I always enjoyed reading AA Gills critiques and articles and will most certainly miss them. His command of the English language was brilliant and what is more amazing is he overcame severe dyslexia to become a fantastic journalist and writer. I for one will miss his acerbic wit. RIP.
Micheal OLainn.Superb tribute man.
Great piece by AA Gill here.
‘Life at 60′
“I was born in 1954 in Edinburgh. Winston Churchill was prime minister, there was still rationing, we were the first generation that would grow up with television, pop music, central heating and a National Health Service. As a child, every old man I knew had fought in the First World War and every young man in the second.
War still hung like the smell of a damp, grim nostalgia over everything. We played Spitfires and Messerschmitts in the playground and you could, as Kingsley Amis pointed out, walk into any pub in the country and ask with perfect confidence if the major had been in. London was still moth-eaten with bomb sites and black with coal smoke. One of my earliest memories is of the last pea souper fog”
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/newsreview/features/article1427723.ece?shareToken=2fca8e9e52d777d7c93e9583efcc3bf2
@Alex Falcone: I remember it well, fish n chips in the sunday newspaper and Saturday kids cinema to watch Roy Rodgers and Trigger the horse.
Michael Winner & now AA Gill both gave brilliant Restaurant reviews etc ! Sadly missed !!
Ok 2016 you can stop now.
I remember best as the tv critic, was always a good laugh on a sunday morning
Oh. That’s an awful loss for his family and friends and to journalism. I loved his writing in the Sunday Times.
He’ll be missed.
RIP.
Jaysus Alan Cooke, does it matter that much to you?
Undoubtedly one of my most favorite writers and wits. I read his columns first thing every Sunday, devoured his restaurant reviews, bowed to his tv critique. There aren’t a lot of A.A. Gills in the world, his writing always enlivened me and made me smile. Bless him and his family.
For those who have yet to read his recent memoir “Pour Me : A Life, I can’t recommend it enough.
Michael O Lainn, what a nice tribute, may he rest in peace.
Holy Shit. I didn’t always agree with his verbose, seemingly pretentious articles but I always read them regardless. One of his last restaurant reviews was of the Magpie Cafe in Whitby which he gave five stars all round and personally having had a fish n chip there myself I can but only agree and commend the man for keeping it real to end. RIP
Dreadful loss to all his fans.
Can’t understand all the thumbs down to genuine options.
AA terrible loss
Hardly the point.
Sunday Times will never be quite the same.
Sadly not PJ!
He changed my life. R.I.P Mr Gill
There’s one in every box
Rick Grimes anyone?
F#ck off
Isn’t that the man who shot a baboon just to see what it felt like?
I stand corrected. He shot it to see what it might feel like to kill a human being. https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/26/aa-gill-shot-baboon
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