Taking a leaf from the Danes' playbook

IT'S the biggest thing to hit the headlines of 2016 since harissa replaced sriracha. The catch-all Danish lifestyle term "hygge" (pronounced hoo-gah) meaning "cosiness", a term that conjures up all things rustic, warm and made-in-Scandinavia, has captured the imagination of the world - leaving everyone outside of the Arctic Circle in the cold. The rest of us, well, apparently don't have "hygge" in our culture.

So pervasive is hygge in Denmark, it is believed to be the reason the country has topped the list of the United Nations' World Happiness Report for two consecutive years (Singapore is the happiest nation in Asia at No. 22; while the top five list includes Switzerland (No. 2); Iceland (3), Norway (4) and Finland (5). The word has even made the Oxford Dictionary's 2016 shortlist which defines it as: "A quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture)."

To really understand hygge, you need to picture the Danes holed up in their log cabins (or apartments, pardon the hyperbole) while a raging snowstorm howls outside. They light candles, wear knitted pullovers and socks, and share mulled wine (glogg) with close friends and family. Everything is rustic, unpretentious and very earth-bound. Some have sniffed at this almost-bucolic milieu as a consequence of Denmark's providing its citizens with almost everything: free university education, social security, universal healthcare, infrastructure where everything hums along, fully paid family leave, and at least 30 days of annual leave.