It doesn’t look like us americans to miss a business opportunity – it actually feels quite unnatural, if I must be honest, but for one reason or another I have never before written about coziness.
Fun is big business. Boligmagasinerne is stuffed with hyggeting such as expensive, candle light, soft mohairtæpper, hand-made earth-coloured coffee mugs and warm socks, which helps you also to feel the cosiness’.
You can even get on the guided ‘fun tours’ in the larger Danish cities.
Hyggeforfattere – that is, authors who write about enjoy – live life in the fast lane and scores the box. Racing around to be interviewed for the coloured leaves and whiz past højtstablede stacks of their books at Copenhagen Airport, so that they can reach their next lecture in front of the cheering fans in London, Paris and Rome. (While I can fortunately look forward to a cosy talk at Holstebro Gymnasium. See you soon, kids!)
Enjoy as an export product has become a huge industry. But a bit like love, so you can’t just put enjoy on the shopping list, although there are many, who would otherwise try.
Last I checked, there were 5,4 million. images with hashtagget #fun on Instagram. As a rule it is vinterversionen of fun, which will be on display. The with piping hot tea in the expensive mugs in front of the fire in the stove and surrounded by decorative trinkets.
Damebladene can also put their sommerversion up, where women with perfect makeup wreaking perfect red strawberries and perfect bouquets of wild flowers on the spotless, rødternede tablecloths.
It makes me exhausted just to look at.
Enjoy should not be a new source of præsentationsangst. It should just be about feeling good, whether it is alone or with people you know really well, have it nice together and not all the time to impress.
Drill a little deeper into the concept, you will find out that the coziness of the reality’s about time. Centuries of preparation on the long, dark winters have made you danes to a productive and practical people, who like to get something from the hand.
this is Why time is also one of the most important in Denmark, more important than the money and prestige for most. (In addition, you neither have to pay vat or tax of the time!). The best way to show someone how much you love them is to spend his free time together with them.
My yndlingseksempel of comfort is the annual walk on christmas day. In my family we have a tradition to take in the woods and just stroll around in the vinternøgne landscape, while we look for birds and find pine cones on the forest floor, and we always have lots of company of other families of the day.
It is amazing to see how children, parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents – if they live – come together just to enjoy nature and the fresh, frozen air along with no thought of time.
I also think it is smadderhyggeligt to sit inside on cold afternoons and play board games with the family. The game is just an excuse to spend time together: no one can remember who won the last time in the Matador anyway.
sometimes we discover hidden sides of each other. Who could know, that cute old granny, in reality, was a ruthless capitalist!
You can also play on a ‘hyggehold’ for football, volleyball or handball, where the most important thing is not who loses and wins, but the unity between the teammates – and the third half.
Or you can run a ‘hyggevirksomhed’. Many danes use their spare time to running a business, so they can sell their handmade jewelry or breed chickens. They do it not to get rich, they do it out of desire, because it is an opportunity to unfold one’s creative side. And it is apparently so normal that the Tax has given it its very own category – they call it then, just for a ‘hobbyvirksomhed’.
Common to all the examples is that it should be fun and nice and not involve a hidden agenda.
One thing is certainly sure: If I really must enjoy myself, so I go in the kitchen with a new exciting recipe, while my yndlingspodcast playing in the background.
And in contrast to the women in the damebladene, so going without makeup, without Instagram and without expensive socks on the feet.
Kay Xander Mellish
Kay Xander Mellish is a lecturer and has written several books, fol.a. ‘How to Live in Denmark’ and the ‘Top 35 Mistakes Danes Make in English’. She is born in the UNITED states and became a Danish citizen in 2017. Kay speaks English, but writes in English. Her post is translated by Emil Ørum-Engraff.
