What's "Hygge"?

The view from atop Camp Driftwood on Shroud Cay, Exumas, Bahamas

Hygge is many things, but let's start with the hard part: pronunciation. It's "hooga." Not so bad, right?

Hygge is a Danish concept, and denmark.dk explains it well:

In brief, hygge is about taking time away from the daily rush to be together with people you care about - or even by yourself - to relax and enjoy life's quieter pleasures. . . . Hygge is often about informal time together with family or close friends. . . . There is no agenda. You celebrate the small joys of life, or maybe discuss deeper topics. It is an opportunity to unwind and take things slow.

We first learned about hygge when we saw the Broadway production of Disney's Frozen last year in Philadelphia. The play has a song called "Hygge" (which is not in the movie), which is sung by Wandering Oaken at the beginning of the second act.

Oaken sings:

You don't have this word in English, but allow me to translate... Hygge means comfortable, hygge means cozy, hygge means sitting by the fire with your cheeks all rosy!

OK, so there's no fireplace on Hygge, but she's definitely cozy! Oaken continues:

Finding a spider in your shoe: Not hygge. Having an annoying thing to do: Not hygge. Hygge's not scheduled, you can't say when it starts or ends; most importantly it can't be hygge without your family and friends!

You can find the song on Spotify. Listen to it a couple times, and you'll be hooked.

As we were thinking about names for our new-to-us sailboat, hygge seemed like the perfect fit. After all, the purpose of our sailing trip is to slow down and spend quality time together as a family before the kids grow up. And the the kids absolutely love the song!

We've enjoyed a lot of hygge on our trip -- and we've had many episodes that were "not hygge" -- all of which should make for some good blogging!