Interview with Danish journalist Kathrine Anker
Hygge Folk is all about brining the Danish concept of hygge to the rest of the world—most especially the United States. That means we’re always searching for avenues to deepen our understanding of hygge.
This month we spoke with 34-year-old Danish journalist Kathrine Anker.
Kathrine grew up on the island of Bornholm (pop 40,000) in the Baltic Sea. From there she moved to the UK and received a degree in social anthropology and international development studies, and an MA in International Journalism. She worked as a journalist in London for seven years before moving back to Denmark in 2017. Kathrine now lives in Copenhagen with her husband Jaime and their beautiful dog Archie.
Check out our Q&A and with Kathrine Anker [KA] below.
Tell us about the time you first learned about or heard about “hygge”?
KA: Hygge is a word that Danes use a lot, so I’ve heard it all my life. The first time I remember thinking about it was when listening to a song explaining what hygge was, in a Christmas show for kids. The song used examples that all Danish kids could relate to, such as having played outside in the snow all day and coming home with frozen cheeks, and drinking a hot chocolate while it gets dark outside.
How do you pronounce hygge yourself? (the great controversy)
KA: Haha, is there a controversy about that? I guess the danish ‘y’ is a mystery to many. It’s pronounced a bit like the ‘ui’ in the surname Muir, but not exactly. And the end of the word is pronounced llike ‘guh’. This is correct.
I don’t get annoyed when people mispronounce it – who knows if I pronounce Feng Shui correctly?
What would you tell people who want to experience hygge and feel they don't know how?
KA: Most people around the world already practice hygge, perhaps without having a word for it, because it’s literally just a happy feeling of bring in good company while feeling good.
Hygge has taken off around the world and is used by a lot of brands—how do folks in Denmark feel about the hygge concept growing internationally?
KA: I think a lot of Danes find it amusing, because there are so many magazine and newspaper articles telling you ‘how to do hygge’, but getting it completely wrong. These articles will usually have a checklist of commodities you need to purchase in order to achieve hygge, such as candles and blankets and woolly socks, which I find hilarious.
““Outside in the snow all day and coming home with frozen cheeks, and drinking a hot chocolate while it gets dark outside.” - on learning about hygge as a child”
What’s the main thing you feel other brands/countries/authors get wrong about hygge?
KA: This whole idea that you can create hygge by following a checklist or purchasing something. Hygge starts on the inside, and if the good feeling isn’t there, it doesn’t matter how many candles you’ve lit. I also find that people – be they brands, authors or media outlets – tend to make hygge sound like a lifestyle, which is a very grand word for something that is just a feeling, really. It’s like saying that you have a friendship lifestyle because you like to hang out with your friends, or a dinner lifestyle because you like to have dinner every day.
Another misconception is that you’ll achieve hygge if you decorate your home in a minimalistic, Scandinavian style. That’s just how many Danes happen to like their interiors, and when you’ve decorated your home in a way that looks nice to you, you are bound to feel more relaxed and content in it. So if you prefer a mid-century modern style or French country style, or you’ve just filled your home with things you like without paying much attention to style, you can just as easily feel hygge in those surroundings.
““Things you can buy for your house don’t bring about any hygge if the good feeling or the good relationship isn’t there to begin with. So the best place to start is by making sure you spend enough time with your friends and family.””
I personally see hygge a bit like ASMR (a shingling feeling in the brain)—it’s a feeling humans have been having for a long time, but we’re just now learning how to tap into and it recognize it when we feel it. That’s why there are videos all over YouTube helping viewers feel ASMR, and why blogs are trying to trigger “hygge” in their readers. Would you say that’s a reasonable comparison to compare ASMR and hygge?
KA: Hmm, that’s interesting. I think that does actually work as a comparison, yes. We’ve all felt hygge before, but with the wave of interest in the Danish word for it, and in Danish lifestyle in general, people are starting to pay more attention to the feeling. Perhaps what distinguishes Danish culture is that people have always recognized it as a feeling, and consciously done things to help bring it about, such as lighting candles. And it’s cool if the rest of the world wants to be inspired by that. But the core of hygge is just that lovely feeling you get when spending good time with friends or family, which happens to people everywhere in the world. Other languages may not have a word for it, but it is a universal, human thing.
Would you say it goes against hygge to sell an item e.g. buy this blanket to feel hygge? Or is it okay to buy things to enhance hygge in our lives?
KA: Danes do buy things to enhance the sense of hygge – they do like their candles, and they do tend to spend a lot of time and money on making their homes beautiful and cosy. So I guess it’s not wrong for a candle company to advertise that their products can help make your house more cosy and hyggeligt. But the key thing to stress here is that things you can buy for your house don’t bring about any hygge if the good feeling or the good relationship isn’t there to begin with. So the best place to start is by making sure you spend enough time with your friends and family. Make time for that coffee date with the friend you’ve been wanting to see for ages, or switch off everything digital and bake some cookies with your kids.
