What is "hygge"?

[GoogaMooga]

"Hygge" has become popular abroad, and I bet the word is creeping into the English language more and more. But isn't it in danger of becoming a cliché, a tired marketing slogan? It's certainly been milked dry, with heaps of lifestyle books having been published - and not just travel guides, but whole fucking books. Two posits here: some say "hygge" is universal, with other nations just having different words for it. Then there are those who claim it is a uniquely - or particularly - Danish thing, a Danish concept, a certain lifestyle that is understated and hard to imitate. Admittedly the word is Danish, although I think it comes from Norwegian (can't bother to check)...
Anyway, I take the middle position, that "hygge" when defined in other languages takes many more words to describe. Here the Danes encapsulate it with one short word, just two syllables: hyg-ge. Hygge is marketed abroad as being a family thing, an indoor activity or state of being, but you can just as easily hygge by yourself, or with the cat, or even the canary. Hygge can be as banal as lighting a cigarette or solving a crossword puzzle. Hygge should not be forced or staged, it won't work. So don't get it confused with "hyggenygge", which has a slightly different meaning...

[C]

"Why not follow the Danish example and bring more hygge into your daily life?"



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[GoogaMooga]

[Deebank]

Is his name really ‘Mike Viking’ ?

[GoogaMooga]

Is his name really ‘Mike Viking’ ?

My guess is that it is his nom de plume. I've never come across that spelling before, but there may be a joke in there somewhere, as some Danes say "wiking" when they mean to say "viking".

[Fonz]

Also famous for bacon

[GoogaMooga]

Also famous for bacon

The UK is one of our biggest export markets, perhaps second only to Germany. I don't know if that has changed post-Brexit, though.