Ein Wort, ein Gefühl, das hier immer wieder in meinem Leben in Dänemark auftaucht. Jetzt zur Weihnachtszeit wird es besonders hyggelig. Draußen ist alles zugeschneit und ich sitze drinnen mit Freunden bei Kerzenschein, Plätzchen, Tee und Punsch(von Mama)...
Das Wort hygge an sich lässt sich nur wahrlich schwer übersetzen und deshalb versuche ich es auch gar nicht, sondern habe ein paar Informationen für euch zusammengesucht.
Ich wünsche allen eine schöne hyggelige Zeit!
Hyggelig (ursprünglich dän. und norw. ['hygəli], eingedeutscht ['hʏgəliç] oder, wohl in Analogie zu hügelig, ['hyːgəliç]) ist ein im Dänischen häufig verwendetes Adjektiv, das wörtlich „gemütlich“, „angenehm“, „nett“ und „gut“ bedeutet. Darüber hinaus hat hyggelig auch weitere, durchweg positiv belegte Konnotationen wie „geborgen“, „intim“, „im trauten Heim“, „lieblich“, „malerisch“, „Trost spendend“, „klein, aber fein“, „niedlich“. Diese Bedeutungen umfassend wird der Begriff oft im Sinne von „typisch dänisch“ auch von Dänen selbst als nationales Stereotyp gebraucht.
One of the fundamental aspects of Danish culture is "hygge", which, although translated as "coziness" is more akin to "tranquility". Hygge is a complete absence of anything annoying, irritating, or emotionally overwhelming, and the presence of and pleasure from comforting, gentle, and soothing things. Hygge is often associated with family and close friends. Christmas time when loved ones sit close together with candles lit on a cold rainy night is "hygge", as is grilling a pølse (Danish sausage) on a long summer evening. These examples, although they do not precisely define "hygge", can give an English speaker an idea of a deeply valued traditional concept of Danish culture.
The Danes have a word that's hard to translate, and no foreigner can hope to pronounce, but it's as Danish as pork roast and cold beer. It's hygge, and it goes far in illuminating the Danish soul.
The closest we can come phonetically is "hooga," if we try forming our mouths for "ee" while saying "oo." It doesn’t translate directly into any other language but we can illustrate it in action.
| Gather the family and invite over a couple of good friends. Push the sofas and chairs up close to the coffee table. Douse the electricity and light some candles. Better yet, light a fire in the hearth.
Serve plenty of food and drink. Raise a toast or two, or three, and feel the warmth flow around the table. Look at each other until you see the candlelight shimmering in each other’s eyes. You've got hygge! |
| No synonyms Luckily, we didn't have to use near-synonyms like coziness, fellowship, security, reassurance or well-being. They just don't add up to hygge. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Hygge didn't originate in the Danish language but in Norwegian, where it meant something like "well-being." It first appeared in Danish writing around the end of the 18th Century and the Danes have embraced it like a fat baby. |
| It´s everywhere One good thing about hygge is that you can apply it anywhere. Danes allocate it generously to everything commonplace.
"Hygge is essentially a phenomenon of overabundance," according to newspaper columnist Anne Brockenhuus-Schack. "You can't hygge yourself very much if you're cold and hungry."
Other pundits profess that hygge is born of the climate: The Danish winter is notoriously long and dark, but summer nights can be remarkably bright and balmy. Anthropologist Henny Harald Hansen subscribes to this theory of hygge.
"It's a term that has grown out of our cold and darkness, when we come together around a source of heat. Our ancestors surely didn't decide to settle here in December!" she writes.
Certainly, Danish life is far more centered around home and hearth than in warm, southern lands. Try making hygge on a Mediterranean marble floor!
The Danes also think that sitting at a seaside picnic table or amid the flora of a summer garden is just as hyggelig as huddling close to the fire on a winter's night.
A critical ingredient in hygge is familiarity. This doesn't suggest intimacy, however. That's an entirely different word: råhygge, or literally "raw hygge." That's when you get beyond superficiality into the real meat of existence like the origin of the universe or your monthly average disposable income, after tax. |
| The high season of hygge The High Season of Hygge is Christmas. Danes lead a secular lifestyle but when it comes to religious holidays, they pull out the stops. Some people believe that early Danes adopted religion in order to get the occasional day off.
But as the Danish sun approaches its winter solstice, daylight is squeezed down to little more than six hours. This makes a lot of darkness, but the Vikings fight back with millions of candles, red-capped elves, rice porridge with cinnamon and an exhausting social agenda.
Then on Christmas Eve, the quest for hygge even drives the Danes to lighting real candles on their Christmas trees. Homeowners’ insurance is expensive here.
This hygge-o-rama (author's word) continues through New Year's Day. But one Danish Christmas carol asserts that "... Christmas lasts all the way to Easter."
Never say die, those Danes. Hygge is their heritage - and their destiny.
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Es muss mal gesagt werden: Skype ist schon eine tolle Erfindung. Was würde ich ohne diese Erfindung bloß hier machen?
