Death of Gemütlichkeit: Why I hate this "Hygge"
Friday evening ? We were already quite dazed at 9 pm and hopped off the four way beer tipsy to the neighborhood. Also in January. Youth, freedom .. ah, slipped into a country before our time! Now it's all different, you go first to friends and drink something? and "maybe later in a bar or something, if it's not too cold". The journey takes already three tides, because the living now in the "good" district. Because of the kindergarten quality and probably because the street lights shine brighter. No matter. After all, the beer stays nice and cold in winter, I think and press the bell. And you can smoke in the kitchen.
But then it gets fat. Empty red wine bottles in the stairwell! But not in Assi style, but as à la French winery with candles on it. At the front door hangs one of these mini pillows: "Sweet home, happiness alone!" It smells like lavender. Half paralyzed, half swallowing the bile, I wait until the door opens. Then there are the friends, in colored Ikea slippers, turtleneck wool sweaters? I did not know that such portable heaters exist? and blankets over their shoulders as if they were Canadian trappers hunting reindeer. "Nice to have you there, we just did it hygge", they say with a smile straight out of "The Shining". Yes, cool, I think. I'll fix it myself hygge. Forever. With the shotgun in the mouth.
The danish virus
"Have you already unpacked the board games?" ? My friends find it only half funny. The beer lands on the kitchen table, not even in the fridge. Whether I want a warm cup of tea. It dislocates the thinking muscle. Are they crazy? Am I about 60 plus ?! Next, probably put on Chopin, press me to relax a Monet painting in hand and a Xanax in the throat. In the living room it is as stuffy warm as during a train ride in midsummer. This hygge, I still think and sip valerian tea, is psychological warfare.
Short, historical trip: "Hygge" is actually nothing new and also guaranteed no magic. The Danes (and later Norwegians) like to be "hyggelig" since the last century? which means as much as a cozy, soothing, safe atmosphere surrounded by the oh so dear fellow people. Especially in the dark winter months helped to mental health and social entertainment? Exactly, there are smartphones today. In general, people in northern countries think a lot about homeliness, that means wood everywhere, stylish furniture, cinnamon buns in every drawer. As with Ikea stop.
Hygge, you me too!
Actually, all right and fair, dear Scandinavians, you are allowed to do that. We also have our methods of comfort here, as well as drinking mulled wine and family quarrels at Christmas. The problem is much more that the Hygge concept internationally mercilessly exploited since 2016 at the latest, just because there was a salmon-filled marketing Heini after a business trip to Copenhagen probably meant that sells. Congratulations, you sausage, it does too! Now we live in a world of interiors filled with scented candles, pillows and woolen socks. On the coffee tables in Germany is packed fiction like "The Little Art of Hygge" and everything smells four months after penetrabel sugar sweet pastries.
Of course, dog weather dominates from November to the end of February. Of course you should and should make yourself comfortable there? but this cotton-tipped, contrived "The Fireplace Is My Sanctuary" atmosphere, all the outrageously tasteless lifestyle books, the truckloads of inedible tea variations against stress, vitamin deficiency, yellow fever? It does not take all that to be comfortable. Relaxed good German at the kitchen table with a Mett-bread roll. Fight through the cold for a beer in the Eckkneipe. Or go to the movies and watch Star Wars Episode 200. But send the skins back to the Arctic Circle and Hygge back to Denmark.
