Hygge – why the craze for Danish cosiness is based on a myth

Nine books will be published this year featuring the Danish concept of hygge in their title. Such a glut brings a whiff of a bandwagon (for whose initial momentum I suspect I am partly responsible), but if the Telegraph is to be believed, hygge (make a little moue and say “hoogah”), is the big new wellness trend, here with scented candles and woollen socks to make us feel better about the deaths of all those famous people this year.

It is usually claimed there is no English word for the Danes’ uncanny ability to make any situation – be it family get-together, traffic jam, or failed climate conference – cosy. Oops, there it is: cosy. That’s what hygge means. It is no great mystery, nor is it even unique to the Danes. The Germans call it gemütlich, the Dutch, gezelligheid. In English, “convivial” pretty much covers it, too.

True, the Danes are very, very good at keeping things cosy. Like Hobbits. Or aunties. It is their superpower. Having lived among them (Danes, that is) for some years, I have learned a few of their secrets. Yes, light some candles, open a bottle of wine, and try to forget about your credit card balance. The Danes give especially good Christmas, for instance, but is it the secret of their famed happiness, as these books claim?

I suspect happiness is a little more complicated. Here’s my stab at why the Danes are such a satisfied bunch: They are rich, sexy and don’t work very much; they also take more antidepressants than virtually anyone else in the world, and, yes, they like a drink and eat more confectionery and bacon per capita than most.

Hygge is a good thing though, surely? It requires equality of participation (it is not hyggelige for one person to hog the limelight, that’s what Americans do); it is predicated on participants living in the moment (“Isn’t this Viking recreation weekend hyggelige [the weekend that we are experiencing right here, right now]?”), and hygge makes good use of the Danes’ ability to use humour to prick pretentions. Also, I have never encountered a people more prone to communal singing. But there is a dark side to hygge. All right, a slight shadow (and not just the singing).

With its relentless drive towards the middle ground and its dependence on keeping things light and breezy, hygge does get a bit boring sometimes. Worse, British anthropologist Richard Jenkins has described it as “normative to the point of coercive”. If you don’t know the rules, if you like to discuss politics or religion or anything other than your holidays, hygge’s appeal may be short-lived. This is likely to be one reason why Denmark ranked an uhyggelige 65th out of 67 countries in a new survey of expats’ quality of life.

A while back, I appeared on the Danish equivalent of Radio 4’s Today programmeand remarked on the irony that, while being vocal critics of others’ extremist tendencies, the Danes seemed prone to extremism: in happiness, taxes, their welfare state and the happy pills. Above all, in hygge.

“Ha, yes,” laughed the sound engineer, as I left. “It’s true. We are extremists. We are the hygge jihad!”

The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia by Michael Booth is out now (Vintage).

Hygge – why the craze for Danish cosiness is based on a myth

Danish childminder"s discrimination case may possibly redefine weight problems as disability

In the United kingdom, 64% of grownups are classified as getting overweight or obese. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Photos

An overweight Danish childminder, mentioned to be unable to bend down to tie up shoelaces, could make legal history this week by calling for employers across Europe to treat weight problems as a disability.

The discrimination situation brought by Karsten Kaltoft against his regional authority will be heard by the European court of justice in Luxembourg on Thursday and could set a far-reaching precedent across all EU states.

Kaltoft, who weighed far more than 158kg (25st) at the time, was sacked by the council, Billund Kommune, since it deemed that he could not perform his duties due to his dimension, citing the truth that he needed help from a colleague to tie up children’s shoelaces. The Danish courts referred the concern to the ECJ.

If effective in redefining obesity as a disability, Kaltoft’s attorneys could force widespread adjustments in the way employers deal with employees and what assistance – for illustration, reserved parking – they may be necessary to supply.

The court, whose rulings are binding during the EU, will have to determine whether it is respectable to discriminate on the grounds of weight problems and regardless of whether the burden of proof in any future situations ought to be on the employer or worker. The ECJ will also consider whether, if there is a duty to avoid discrimination against individuals struggling from weight problems, it applies just to the public sector or across the entire labour industry.

Audrey Williams, head of discrimination at the London law company Eversheds, explained: “The influence could demonstrate important for employers, notably those in the Uk which continues to reveal the highest percentages of weight problems in Europe.” In the United kingdom, 64% of adults are classified as currently being obese or obese.

“Discrimination law in the United kingdom, the Equality Act 2010, has been interpreted as protecting physical and psychological situations which result from obesity, to the extent they meet specified criteria in terms of their nature, effect and duration,” stated Williams. “Weight problems itself has been rejected by the United kingdom courts as a disability in its personal right. If the European court reaches a contrary conclusion, the Equality Act would want to be utilized quite in a different way.

“Obesity, even so it will come to be defined, would need to be approached just like any other physical or psychological impairment, preventing an employer from treating an worker less favourably because of their bodyweight, not due to the fact of consequential health care troubles. This would incorporate the capacity to dismiss.

“The primary change, however, would practically surely come up in the context of the employer’s duties to make realistic adjustments to the workplace or functioning arrangements. For example, entry to the office could be an problem, requiring overview of where the employee is found and their seating arrangements. May well obese employees require to get preferential access to automobile parking, for instance?”

In the USA, several latest cases have resulted in dismissed employees successfully claiming they were discriminated towards for being obese. In 1 case, a employee in Texas who weighed much more than 305kg (48st) received $ 55,000 (£32,800) in compensation for losing his work.

Danish childminder"s discrimination case may possibly redefine weight problems as disability