of a Copenhagen think tank called the Happiness Research Institute, shares a story about a Christmas Day spent with friends in a woodsy cabin. In “The Little Book of Hygge,” the best-selling of the current crop of books, Meik Wiking, the C.E.O. It’s possible to hygge alone, wrapped in a flannel blanket with a cup of tea, but the true expression of hygge is joining with loved ones in a relaxed and intimate atmosphere.
It’s wholesome and nourishing, like porridge Danish doctors recommend “tea and hygge” as a cure for the common cold. Hygge can be found in a bakery and in the dry heat of a sauna in winter, surrounded by your naked neighbors. Hygge can be used as a noun, adjective, verb, or compound noun, like hyggebukser, otherwise known as that shlubby pair of pants you would never wear in public but secretly treasure. It is candles, nubby woolens, shearling slippers, woven textiles, pastries, blond wood, sheepskin rugs, lattes with milk-foam hearts, and a warm fireplace.
#OBSESSED DEFINITION PLUS#
Signe Johansen, in a cookbook and wellness guide, “How to Hygge: The Nordic Secrets to a Happy Life,” links hygge to food and drink like cardamom buns, muesli “ne plus ultra,” and triple cherry gløgg, a Scandinavian mulled wine with cardamom pods and star anise she calls it “healthy hedonism.” Louisa Thomsen Brits, the author of “The Book of Hygge: The Danish Art of Contentment, Comfort, and Connection,” calls it “a practical way of creating sanctuary in the middle of very real life” and “a cure for SAD”-seasonal affective disorder-“in book form.”
(At the Guardian, Charlotte Higgins has done an investigation into the U.K.’s hygge publishing craze.) Helen Russell, a British journalist who wrote “The Year of Living Danishly,” defines the term as “taking pleasure in the presence of gentle, soothing things,” like a freshly brewed cup of coffee and cashmere socks. At least six books about hygge were published in the United States this year, with more to come in 2017.
In the past year, this concept of Scandinavian coziness has made inroads with an international audience.
In a 1957 “ Letter from Copenhagen” in The New Yorker, the writer Robert Shaplen reported that hygge was “ubiquitous” in the city: “The sidewalks are filled with smiling, hyggelige people, who keep lifting their hats to each other and who look at a stranger with an expression that indicates they wish they knew him well enough to lift their hats to him, too.” It derives from a sixteenth-century Norwegian term, hugga, meaning “to comfort” or “to console,” which is related to the English word “hug.” Associated with relaxation, indulgence, and gratitude, hygge has long been considered a part of the Danish national character. The Oxford Dictionaries’ 2016 “word of the year” shortlist was heavy on neologisms that one wishes didn’t have to exist: “alt-right,” “Brexiteer,” and this year’s winning term, “ post-truth.” Among the finalists, though, there was one bit of solace: “ hygge,” a Danish term defined as “a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being.” Pronounced “hoo-guh,” the word is said to have no direct translation in English, though “cozy” comes close.
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