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The Norwegian Obsession with “Koselig”
There is an important concept one needs to understand and embrace when living in Norway: being “koselig”. Most English speakers translate it by “cosy” but that term doesn’t even begin to cover everything that “koselig” can express. This concept is difficult to translate to those who do not live here, but basically anything can (and should) be koselig: a house, a conversation, a dinner, a person. It defines something/someone /an atmosphere that makes you feel a sense of warmth very deep inside in a way that all things should be: simple and comforting. And just for the fun ask a Norwegian what is his/her definition of koselig and you will realise it is not only hard to translate but also hard to explain for them. Then ask what is the difference between “hyggelig” and “koselig” and you might have lit an evening-long discussion. (By the way it seems to me that the Danish “hyggelig” is the equivalent to the Norwegian “koselig”, I’m sure the locals will correct me if I am wrong.)
If a person leaves your house and says “det var kjempe koselig” (it was very cosy/nice), and gives you a klem (a Norwegian hug), then you are probably on your way to making a new friend here. Although this might be just the beginning: making friends in Norway can take several steps that includes among other things getting drunk together and being invited to the family hytte. See How to Make Norwegian Friends for further explanation.
So how to make things koselig? According to my experience in Norway, a koselig evening involves candles, good music and as least awkward silences as possible (Norwegians are very sensitive to awkward silences, more than any people I’ve lived with). Warm colors around you, a fire in the chimney, good food on the table, wine and people you like and feel comfortable with. Chatting away the evening and the night with a little drunkness and inner warmth.
Said like that it sounds very easy to figure out what is a koselig evening, especially in the winter. But then it gets tricky because in Norway virtually everything needs to be koselig. And there is no manual for us to know how to be and make things koselig in all circumstances. So for example what is a koselig decoration in a house? What does a koselig kitchen look like? A koselig cup? What is a koselig thing to do on a week end?
And to make it even harder, I realised that one needs to be koselig also in the summer. I thought it was all about finding comfort and warmth when there isn’t any sun outside during the long and dark Scandinavian winters, but then if everything also needs to be koselig when it is light outside and summery…What is a koselig day at the beach when there is no chimney, no candles and no woolen socks? I give up.
Norwegians do it very naturally, and it is very obvious to them what is koselig and what isn’t. Who is and who isn’t. But for us foreigners, it’s a different story. Could it mean, maybe, that doing things in koselig way is cultural and not (at all) universal? (Please, someone out there help me on that one).
To be honest before living here I had have never felt the need to do these things in a way that Norwegians would see as koselig. In any Southern European country such as Spain, Italy or France where I come from, we don’t feel the urge to have nice things inside our houses because the whole point of social life is to be outside: at the beach, in a garden, in the street, at the terrasse of a cafe. The months where it’s too cold to be outside are quite few, and therefore it would not come to our mind to put a lot of money into refurbishing our interior every second year, or to make extra efforts to make it look extra welcoming and warm. It is already warm outside, the windows are wide open and we are eating fresh tomatoes and mozarella salad with basil from the garden. No need to make a cosiness concept out of that, it is just called living.
But in Norway it is completely different. The winters can be long, the nights too (especially in the North of Norway) and then you never know what spring and summer will be like. In summer in Marseille, we know for sure that tomorrow will be just as sunny and warm as it was today. That I can wake up and hop in my bathing suits without looking out the window or checking the weather forecast. That the winter clothes are deep in my closet and will not come out until next November. But in Norway one can never be sure, even in mid-July or August, that it will equally warm and sunny every day.
So Norwegians have learned to seize the moment. The moment, in the summer, when the sun is warm enough to go lie in a park or on an island and bathe, or the one you can wear a light dress or shorts. The moment, in the winter, where there is enough snow to go skiing with your friends or your kid or your dog and enjoy some waffles in a hytte on the way.
Seize it because tomorrow it might be rainy and grått and you might have to get your autumn jacket out of your cupboard and say good bye to the summer for this year (and it’s July!!). So for the all these uncertain times Norwegians need other forms of warmth to hold on to: tequila (or gin and tonic, or aquavit) and koselighet. It is like an inner summer that Norwegians create for themselves to feel like it’s warm all year long no matter the circumstances.
Another option is to think that Norwegians, not being culturally raised to express their feelings too much, made up a single word to express all at once love, friendship, comfort, trust, and most of all happiness. So practical!
So now let’s count your points on the koselig scale: you invited people over for dinner and you didn’t light candles? You definetely lost at least 2 points on the koselig scale.
But then the next sunday you made waffles (not from a box please, you made the dough yourself), that you served with a homemade jam with berries that you picked yourself in the forest next to your hytte. (I know, it’s getting tough to live up to this standard for foreigners who could start picking unripe multer thinking this pink fruit looks kind of like a rasberry or a kind of blackberry – yes it happened to me – and who don’t have a hytte). But congratulations, you’ve just won 3 points on the koselig scale.
You came back from a day of skiing and sweating in Nordmarka with your partner and offered him or her an ice tea and a doughnut? Minus 3 points on the koselig scale. Then turned on the heater and left the fire-place empty because it’s much easy to just switch a button on than to actually make a fire. Minus 2 again points on the koselig scale: you were supposed to offer him/her a warm chocolate with pepperkaker left from your Christmas baking session, put wood in the fire place and crash on the sofa with him/her watching the fire light up in silence, still wearing your sweaty ullundertøy.
You scored very low on the koselig scale? Do not worry, this concept is one of the easiest things to learn about Norwegian culture and after living here a while you will willingly light candles to see some warm light and offer warm socks to your guests for all of you to cuddle around the fire on a snowy december evening. Ah, så koselig.
Comments
217 responses to “The Norwegian Obsession with “Koselig””
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Koselig = “Suffused with warmth”
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[…] of warmth very deep inside in a way that all things should be: simple and comforting….(Read more: http://afroginthefjord.com/2014/02/02/how-to-make-things-koselig/) […]
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[…] A Frog in the Fjord describes it best: It is like an inner summer that Norwegians create for themselves to feel like it’s warm all year long no matter the circumstances. […]
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[…] of warmth very deep inside in a way that all things should be: simple and comforting….(Read more: http://afroginthefjord.com/2014/02/02/how-to-make-things-koselig/) […]
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[…] popular time to get hitched, winter weddings happen! Some folks just love the cold — or cultivate koselig/hygge as a hobby — or maybe it was just the time of year that worked best with myriad folks' […]
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This post made me miss Norway. The fall is coming to the US but it’s simply not the same. It’s not as koselig with rain, snow and cold here as it is in Norway.
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Fantastic as always! 🙂 I have yet to be able to explain to the Argentines what koselig is, but I am working on it…
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[…] So here I am in a city where the sun sets at 3pm. Where they sell snow-cleats for your shoes, and salt the sidewalks so well that you rarely need to use them. Where even the cheap gloves have metallic threads woven in so you can use your phone without taking them off. Where long johns are my most coveted fashion item. The Christmas Market, a tiny village of small shops and fire-warmed Lavvu-style tents (Sami-inspired “tentipi”), will crop up in the King’s Square this time of year, selling reindeer ribs and chocolates and handmade crafts and juleøl (Christmas beer). Sitting beside the open fire, my mittens wrapped around a warm mug of spiced wine, listening to the song of a Norwegian folk artist, it’s hard not to feel, well, cosy. Koselig. […]
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Veldig koselig blogg-post 🙂
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Haha, you nailed it. Us norwegians can be pretty weird. I would say koselig is everything “extra” you do to either set the mood or to make someone happy/comfortable. It’s something that is not always expected from you, but is always very much appreciated by the other person.
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[…] 5. What is the difference in Norwegian between hyggelig and koselig? […]
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[…] Hyggelig Non, le chat n’a pas marché sur le clavier, c’est du danois, et c’est évidemment intraduisible. J’aurais aussi pu dire “koselig”, c’est du norvégien, le principe est un peu le même: Prendre du temps relax et cosy qui vous fait vous sentir confortable, seul ou à plusieurs. Ingrédients du Hyggelig-age: des bougies, du thé chaud, un feu de cheminée… vous voyez le tableau: de quoi se sentir réchauffé et bien. Pour en savoir plus: http://afroginthefjord.com/2014/02/02/how-to-make-things-koselig/ […]
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[…] How to Make Things Koselig […]
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[…] officially so until the 22nd of December. This winter I am trying to embrace the season by being koselig, which is a Norwegian word that has no direct translation in English, though the closest word would […]
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[…] on the positive things about Norway, such as the lovely discoveries of culture and language (“How to make things more koselig“) or getting to know the people and the society (“The joys of being a woman in […]
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[…] How to make things “koselig” […]
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[…] is how others have described it: How to Make Things Koselig, Koselig: How to Embrace and Make the Most Out of Winter; Vogue and Fast Company have also taken […]
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[…] Juicing for the Love of It, the Vitamins, and Koselig […]
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[…] to own and embrace it. The Danish are big on Hygge translation coziness. The Norwegians call it Koselig. These aren’t just words to the Nordic culture they are a way of life. These words define an […]
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[…] if you have any suggestions, let us know!). That’s when we got introduced to the concept of koselig from Norway and hygge from Denmark. To explain it in the simplest terms, it basically means […]
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[…] is how others have described it: How to Make Things Koselig, Koselig: How to Embrace and Make the Most Out of Winter; Vogue and Fast Company have also […]
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[…] they go hand in hand with making winter a lovely time. For a more complete explanation, go to the Frog in the Fjord blog (which has many, many other great posts about Norwegian life and culture seen from an expat's point […]
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[…] fire, sheltering from the brutal winter, gladly toasting their gathering as being koselig. Indeed, as this nice blogpost elucidates, so central is this word to Norwegian culture, its usage extends into areas of life that have no […]
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[…] of the ways we decided to survive this winter was to embrace a Norwegian concept called koselig. It loosely translates as “cozy”. It basically involves making your home as warm and […]
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[…] home to the warmest folks, wine, and the hostel right upstairs. The closest you will come to kozelig this side of […]
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[…] YES!!!! This will definitly be on my winter Koselig […]
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[…] This concept is difficult to translate to those who do not live here, but basically anything can (an… […]
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[…] Going there during the winter, right in time for Christmas, was a really wonderful experience. Norwegians embrace the winter; in fact they love it. They grow up on cross country skis and the cold winter months and short days don’t get them down. One of the main reasons for this is their ability to make things ‘koselig‘. This word is hard to translate to English, as the direct translation to ‘cozy’ doesn’t quite do it justice. Koselig is a feeling, an atmosphere, a sense of being comfortable and at ease. This blog post describes it fairly well; koselig. […]
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Omg I almost feel ashamed of how true this is….
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[…] for a walk before 4 pm or else I miss the day altogether. After the sun goes down, it’s all koselig in my apartment with little chance of reemergence. I’m embracing that […]
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[…] simple and comforting,” says Lorelou Desjardins. She offers some tips on how to get cozy in this story about koselig that she wrote for her website, A Frog in the Fjord. (She’s French and now lives in […]
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[…] in Norway. Some of my readers’ favorite blogposts are also included in the book, such as How to make things Koselig, and The Norwegian “Art” of […]
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[…] A frog in the Fjord […]
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[…] an effort to translate this concept for the non-native Norwegian, blogger Lorelou Desjardins explains: “anything can (and should) be koselig: a house, a conversation, a dinner, a person. It […]
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[…] things are safe as well as predictable and conflict-free, they are often very close to being “koselige”. There is no conflict because nobody would dare change things, even if they wanted to. Could a son […]
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[…] 2. As soon as Autumn comes, Norwegians enter some kind of telys hysteria, lighting them everywhere at any occasion. It is what I call the “endless need for koselig”, which I define as an inner summer that Norwegians create for themselves to feel like it’s warm all year long no matter the circumstances. (see How to make things Koselig) […]
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[…] certain koselig hygge, or homely and comforting warmth, emerged from this little hallway, despite being encircled […]
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I would not say you could lose points on the “koselig” scale, but only gain points, unless someone suggests doing something koselig and you deny, refrain or just simply says it would be boring or a chore.
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[…] est la gérante à Fredrikstad, Café Cicignon, est non seulement un des cafés les plus « koselig » de la ville, mais c’est aussi un lieu de rencontre parmi les Français de la […]
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[…] an effort to translate this concept for the non-native Norwegian, blogger Lorelou Desjardins explains: “anything can (and should) be koselig: a house, a conversation, a dinner, a person. It […]
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[…] the main thing people say about Norway is how cold it is, there is a koselig–warmth to it that outstrips the snow a thousand times over. My advice? Make the trip […]
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[…] is here, and it is time to have a “koselig” time indoors, with a good book in your hands nd a pledd on your knees. Here is a list of 12 […]
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Koselig is to make the best of the situation, to make everyone involved feel a little extra special and loved 😉 As you say, fireplace, dimmed lights, big blankets (soft wool!) And hot chocolate (often spiked with booze) or gløgg (dont forget the booze) in winter as well as a sunny balcony filled with flowers and different solar powered lights all over, good food, friends and conversations- add a sunset and homemade mojitos (no premade sirup shit-thats for acquaintances) , and its as koselig as it gets 😁🤪
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Oh my god. It’s so true. Thanks for this tips…I’m on my way as a french for a “koselig” mood and house
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[…] lime juice. Stir, fill glass with ice and top with tonic water. Kelsey read an intersting Article on the Norwegian concept of "koselig" and it inspired us to think about the ways we can make summer, even in the sweltering heat, […]
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