The Danes have a word that's hard to translate, and no foreigner can hope to pronounce, but it's as Danish as pork roast and cold beer. It's hygge, and it goes far in illuminating the Danish soul.
The closest we can come phonetically is "hooga," if we try forming our mouths for "ee" while saying "oo." It doesn’t translate directly into any other language but we can illustrate it in action.
Emily introduced me to this word before we came here. It's a sort of warmth / candle lighting / cozy-ness that Danes use to fight the darkness / wetness / coldness of the winter months. Or maybe it's just cakes. And television. Maybe fun is the best definition.
Thanks to visit-denmark.dk for the first quote as well as much of the info for this post. Additionally, thanks to Peter Andreas for the above interview video. His blog looks fascinating, although it looks finished / not current. None the less, it just leaped or leapt to the top of my "stuff to read" list.
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