Hygge How-To

Picture this:

It’s 4:15 PM. I just had a 3 hour class. The rain is pouring down oh-so heavily, and I would have guessed that it was 10 PM outside if you had just dropped me out of the sky from another location. I have to bike home. The power of the wind almost physically blows me off my bike. I try not to run into a man holding his baby. Again: not my fault, the wind’s. I am a puddle by the time I get home and I can’t feel my nose. It’s in these moments that I remember I am just a speck of dust compared to the horrifying majesty of nature.

This, people. This is why we need hygge. 

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There’s this little thing called SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder, very aptly named), where people just get really bummed out as the outside world becomes increasingly dark. It’s a thing a lot of people feel to at least some extent, but it’s so much more potent in Scandinavian countries — any guesses as to why?

Yeah, if you guessed the 3:30 PM sunsets, you guessed correctly.

So if you know anything about Denmark, you have heard of the concept of hygge. It doesn’t have a direct translation to English, but the Oxford English Dictionary calls it “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being; contentment from simple pleasures, such as warmth, food, friends, etc.”

This New Yorker article also taught me that it’s related to our English word “hug,” which is just simply adorable. So basically, hygge is the feeling of, the emotion related to, a nice hug.

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Here’s my list of how to implement hygge practices into these grey, dark days:

• Get your butt outside: The first day I got to Copenhagen, our introductory tour guide told us, “When it gets cold, you’ll want to hibernate — but Danish people don’t do that. Look outside, they’ll be rolling around on their bikes with their coffee in hand, even if the rain’s pouring down.” You can imagine I paraphrased that because I heard it at the beginning of the semester, but it’s basically what he said. The point is, you really have to kind of just… pretend weather doesn’t exist. It’s nothing like how we treat rainy days back where I go to school in NC. Activity is the breath of life! I take rain walks now just to make sure I’m feeling the outdoors. Why should we care so much about getting water on ourselves anyway? 

• It’s time to implement some warm drinkage: First and foremost, I’m an iced latte girl. I love a classic iced latte. There’s something so enlivening about it. Another of my favorite drinks is a freezing cold glass of white wine (Sauvignon Blanc, please). But that’s not how hygge rules the land. No. Even though I’m a steadfast cold drink girl, I’ve actually come around to the hot drink phenomenon. It really does warm your spirit along with your insides. #1, drink a hot cup of coffee in the morning. #2, go get some glögg at a Christmas market, or at my favorite glögg spot ever, Kaf. Glögg, by the way, is any hot spiced alcoholic beverage. So freaking delicious. So brilliantly hygge.

• There’s this really nifty accessory called a scarf: By this, I mean dress for the cold. If you dress for it — and I mean, like, wear a coat that weighs as much as you do — then the wind and rain doesn’t actually matter. It’s called constant insulation. Constant warmth. Warm = cozy, and cozy = hygge. Basic math. Did I think that scarves were worthless scrap material before I experienced Copenhagen fall? Yes. Have I changed my mind? Also yes. My neck has never been happier. 

• Soup. Point blank: Make soup. Make buckets of it. It’s so gosh-darn comforting that I’m convinced there’s some scientific explanation out there. Soup is also genuinely so easy to make. Like, somewhere along the line someone convinced me it’s difficult because of too many ingredients and chopping and blending, etc. But I have hacks.
  • Easy soup method 1: put a bunch of yummy things on one baking sheet (peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic… a mushroom… whatever you want). Roast those things. Then put them all in a blender with olive oil and spices and just blend it. All of a sudden you have soup.
  • Easy soup method 2: Put broth in a pot. Put yummy things in pot (beans, veggies, potatoes, literally anything). Boil said things in broth. All of a sudden you have soup.

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My friends, we can overcome! The weather shall not, nay will not defeat us. We will not only embrace this eternal grey, we will UTILIZE it! That’s hygge, my good people! The cozy is within all of us. The warmth persists, beyond spacetime and into the hearts and souls of the masses. 

I believe in all of us to dash out the SAD and implement the Danish brilliance that is the beautiful simple pleasures of comfortability. 

All the best,

Weather Extraordinaire Ava