Is a Danish and Norwegian word which means a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (like the characteristic of the Danish and swedish cultures).
It’s a concept of creating cosy and convivial atmospheres that promote wellbeing.
The idea behind hygge is an important part of the cultural identity for most Norwegian and Danish people. It is not just a word, like the English word cozy.
Hygge refers to a pleasant and highly valued everyday experience of safety, equality, personal wholeness and a spontaneous social flow.
The term hygge includes the idea of nice, cozy, safe, referring to a psychological state.
By discovering the lifestyle hygge I realized that I practiced it already without realizing it. Even in the office, at my workplace, I have arranged and decorated the room to feel at home, I put candles, drawings of my children, I have an Olaf cover when it's cold, tea in my drawer, flamingo snowball on my desk, flower pens, … I even work on a fitness ball, I do not have a traditional office chair. I sometimes go for an original with my colleagues but for me the most important is that I feel good not what others think of me !
The hygge represents all those little moments of happiness that can not be bought. What one feels when one is warm enough under a duvet and it rains in torrents outside. This feeling of well-being when one enjoys a hot chocolate watching TV in a bed. Little things that do everything.
That is the basic precept. It is not a matter of lighting just a small candle by itself to, it's about lighting up many candles in severale rooms of the house. Personally, in addition to candles, I also light lights string, I love it, I have one on an old wooden ladder, one on the wall that separates the kitchen from the dining room and one around a window.
When you light candles and you decrease the artificial light, the atmosphere is more warm, softer and therefore more conducive to well-being.
Each year Danish cane burn about six kilograms of candle. It is colossal, but it is the main hygge instrument.
Danish are also the kings to create luminaires that diffuse light in a subdued way, such as the famous PH or Klint lamps.
It can be a cup of tea, a hot chocolate, a hot wine, a good coffee, almost a religion in Denmark. The addicts to the Danish television series Borgen or The Killing will confirm : at each scene, the hero is carrying a cup of coffee in his hand.
Danish are the fourth largest coffee drinkers in the world.There is an internet site kaffehygge.dk, its moto "Live today as if there were no more coffee tomorrow".
The cakes and pastries, homemade preferably, are an integral part of the hygge, they bring their dose of comfort.
They allow themselves these sweets without thinking about calories, without asking whether we are entitled or not.
, soft cushions or enveloping covers.
Here you will find some inspirational readings :
