Vector geometric colored tiled pattern with the lettering Hygge (danish lifestyle).
Do Danes have the answer to reducing holiday stress?
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Scott LaMar
Vector geometric colored tiled pattern with the lettering Hygge (danish lifestyle).
Airdate: December 09, 2022
Being busy during the holiday season is often described as “the hustle and bustle.” Almost sounds quaint. But for many people and families the holiday season and winter are anything but quaint.
There’s a lot of stress.
There are some places in the world where it’s not as stressful as here in the United States. Take Denmark for example. The people of Denmark are consistently ranked as some of the happiest in the world. What do they know that we don’t?
On The Spark Friday, Dr. Marie Helweg-Larsen, a native Dane and psychologist, who is a professor of psychology at Dickinson College, says the people of Denmark often describe themselves as having “overskud,” “overskud is used by Danes to refer to having excess energy, a bandwidth, you might say, in English. So having energy to take on extra tasks. So the way Danes use it is that they might say that they have always good to do something extra hard work, to plan a great party, to engage in activities above and beyond what would be expected. And Danes, actually, it’s a noun, actually combine it with other nouns. So they might say that you overskued, Dad, because you decorated holiday cookies with your kid and and his friends. Or you might say that you made an overskue breakfast, which might be a very fancy breakfast with lots of different elements and delicious foods that you went above and beyond to cook. Danes authentically applaud people saying that they have overskud, even though it might seem like a little like bragging. But overskud is a good thing to have and something that everyone would like to have more of.”
Danes also utilize pyt according to Helweg-Larsen,”It’s an interjection that you do either in response to yourself or to other people. And you use it to say, to remind yourself and others to just let go. So there are so many daily frustrations. Those, of course, happen at any time. Also during the holidays, you want things to be perfect for the holidays, but there’s also long lines and rude strangers and sold out toys and piles of dirty dishes. The list goes on and on. And if you also want things to be perfect, that can add to the additional stress. So by reminding yourself that everything cannot be perfect, you can do that by saying, pyt, just let it go. It’s not that big of a deal. So it’s a way to reset and let go. And what’s cool is the Danes use it about themselves. So you might say this holiday gift was not really wrapped. All that great pyt. It’s okay. Everyone will still be happy with the gift inside. But you can also use it to remind other people that they should let go. So you can say if your daughter is upset about you, are her holiday cookies, you can say pyt. They’re still going to be delicious even though they look a little funny.”
Helweg-Larsen wrote about Denmark and coping at the holidays in The Conversation.
