![\"450px-A_dyke_and_snow_drift_-_geograph_org_uk_-_676788\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/450px-A_dyke_and_snow_drift_-_geograph_org_uk_-_676788.jpg\")
Photo by Walter Baxter of geograph.org.uk via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
midwinter.<\/p>\n
About this time of year, we start counting the days until spring and wondering how the rugged residents of far northern latitudes do it. How can they keep their chins up with months more until thaw and precious little daylight in which to weather the harshest of seasons?<\/p>\n
They must have a secret.<\/p>\n
![\"450px-Windlicht\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/450px-Windlicht.jpg\")
Photo by 4028mdk09 via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
In fact, they do.<\/p>\n
Well, it’s not exactly a secret\u2014the rest of the globe just hasn’t caught on to hygge<\/em> yet.<\/p>\n The Danish term hygge<\/em> (pronounced something like “heu-gah”) is worthy of translation among traditions nationwide, if for no other reason than the fact that Denmark is the happiest country in the world, according to the United Nations General Assembly’s World Happiness Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo by Kozuch via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n That’s pretty big, right?<\/p>\n While I’m fairly certain hygge is a noun, its definition isn’t cut and dried. It’s more of a concept, really, a notion, a ritual of sorts.<\/p>\n Photo by Christian Bier via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n Perhaps I should leave the defining to a lady who knows the nuances of hygge, Louisa Thomsen Brits. She’s a writer of Danish descent, and she crafted a lovely blog called\u2014you guessed it\u2014Hygge<\/a>, where she explains this winter survival strategy most eloquently:<\/p>\n “Hygge is the art of building sanctuary and community, of inviting closeness and paying attention to what makes us feel open-hearted and alive. To create well-being, connection and warmth. A feeling of belonging to the moment and to each other. Hygge happens when we commit to the pleasure of the present moment in its simplicity,” Brit writes. “Hygge is a kind of enchantment\u2014a way of stirring the senses, the heart and the imagination, of acknowledging the sacred in the secular\u2014a way of giving something ordinary a special context, spirit, and warmth, taking time to make it extraordinary.”<\/p>\n Okay, so maybe that’s more of a roundabout explanation than a hard and fast definition, but you’re beginning to get the gist, aren’t you?<\/p>\n![\"800px-Winter_baby_10-months-old\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/800px-Winter_baby_10-months-old.jpg\")
![\"Pfadfinder_am_Lagerfeuer\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Pfadfinder_am_Lagerfeuer.jpg\")