“THERE ARE A lot of similarities between the Danes and the Irish,” says Meik Wiking. “You have the word ‘craic’ which is quite close to the Danish ‘hygge’.”
Hygge – or craic, if you prefer – is what Meik Wiking describes as “the art of creating a nice atmosphere”. In his eyes, it’s also central to the fact that Denmark has repeatedly ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world.
Wiking is the author of The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living, and CEO of the Happiness Research Institute. There, they carry out research on how to improve quality of life.
He was in Dublin to launch The Danish Experiment, a web series created by Carlsberg which will follow four eclectic Irish personalities as they explore the Danish way of living, learning what makes them so different to their European counterparts.
The series will see street artist Maser, stylist and interior designer Jo Linehan, food trailblazer Kevin Powell and Kodaline bassist Jay Boland all discover what they can learn from Copenhagen to take to their creative careers back home.
So, what could Ireland learn from the Danish way? We asked Wiking to share his life lessons:
“Hygge happens everywhere,” says Wiking. “But Danes have a word to describe that situation and it makes us more aware of it and to try to achieve it on a daily basis.” He links that to the country’s notoriously fine taste in interiors: “The Danes are obsessed with interior design, in part because we are forced indoors for about eight months of the year.”
So, make your home an open place to those you love. “That’s why Danes like to invite people over for dinner and not go out so much. You want to create a cosy place where people enjoy spending time. People [in Denmark] contemplate a lot how they can create a cosy space in their living room.”
“If you look at how often people meet with friends, family and colleagues outside of work, Danes report some of the highest levels in Europe,” explains Wiking.
This is where his link to ‘craic’ comes in, too. “You have the word ‘craic’, which is close to the word ‘hygge’, because they’re both about hanging out with your mates and having a good time.”
“There are also good conditions for decent work-life balance in Denmark, everyone is always gone by five,” shares Wiking.
“If you work until six, people are like, ‘what’s going on, is there some secret project you’re working on?’ It’s this good work/life balance that allows people to be able to meet their mates on such a regular basis.”
“If we look at hygge, the rule of thumb is that the longer the cooking time, the more hygge a meal. If you have a stew that needs to simmer for a couple of hours, if you can enjoy making it and also talk over a bottle of beer during the preparation, that’s great,” says Wiking.
“I’ve created a supper club where we try to do things a little differently. Instead of having one host who has to take care of everything and handle all the logistics and hassle, we just decide on a theme – one time we tried to make sausages from scratch,” he says.
“It could be Mexican food or recipes containing duck – every person just brings ingredients to create one dish within that theme and then we spend an hour or two preparing that meal together. It creates a really hygge-ly atmosphere.”
“Of course hygge is happening in Ireland,” says Wiking. “But I think having a word that describes the situation makes us recognise it more when we see it,” says Wiking.
His point is that even if it’s just an afternoon spent on the couch with your best friend, you can think of it as time well spent not time wasted. He explains: “It’s about savouring life’s simple pleasures but also about relaxation, comfort, togetherness and hanging out with friends.”
Want to find out what makes Denmark one of the happiest places in the world? Keep an eye out for the first episode of The Danish Experiment, which will be unveiled on TheJournal on June 14th. Follow Carlsberg Ireland on Facebook and Instagram to tune in to the series and for behind-the-scenes edits . Enjoy Carlsberg sensibly, visit drinkaware.ie.
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