The Joys of Hygge

Embedded in an argument for the superiority of winter over summer is this interesting insight into friendship, as understood by the Danes:

Crucially, cold weather also facilitates coziness — a phenomenon so important, and so ill-served by the weedy word “coziness”, that the Danes have made it a central part of their (unusually happy) culture. They call it “hygge”. Hygge can mean hot chocolate by the fire while it’s snowing outside, but it also implies camaraderie and intimacy: it’s a social coziness, a coming together with people we love, against the encroaching cold. I know sunshine enthusiasts have their equivalent pleasures: chilled drinks on a beach with friend, say. And they probably imagine they’re just as good. They are wrong.