I’ve never been a big believer in NY resolutions, but I definitely have been guilty of a year round aggression towards life with constant activity, progress and revision - and January’s of years past have been full of bright ideas and industry.

Needless to say, this winter, my perspective is a little different.

There is nothing quite like being forced into extended physical recovery to remind you of the virtues of rest, of quiet, and of inactivity. For weeks, I have struggled to be physically or mentally active, and have had to accept the rest my body is demanding. This would be less challenging to accept if I was a more laid back person, but I am not. I’m not a napper, a procrastinator, a “leave it for tomorrow” kind of person - I am a doer, and inactivity is comparable to torture for me. Yet even in, or perhaps especially in, recovery, I am discovering the new-found wisdom of resting.

The day I left the hospital after the loss of our baby was Dec. 21st, the day that marks the ancient festival of the Winter Solstice. My family has always marked the day, with a sort of casual nod to our ancient cultural roots, like much of England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries do still to this day. In all fairness, I didn’t take it too seriously as a child. It was a day for old stories about our ancient past around a roaring bonfire under the stars, marking the festival of Light triumphing over Darkness on the darkest day of the year. The family togetherness and ancient legacy of what we were commemorating is what I most remember … I didn’t really think beyond that. But this last Dec. 21st, the fact that my “coming out of darkness” fell on the same day struck me with a newfound respect for the day and its ancient meaning. So, as I rested and began my healing, I went looking for a better understanding of the day, its ancient meaning, and its translation to us today.

Scientifically, the Winter Solstice marks when earth’s poles reach their maximum tilt away from the sun - making it the darkest(ish) day of the year, with the shortest period of daylight. In prehistoric cultures, this change in the daylight had a powerful significance. Almost every ancient culture has a similar story or festival to mark or explain the temporal event. We know that the prehistoric peoples of England, Scotland and Ireland marked it as significant, thanks to structures like Stonehenge and Newgrange that still baffle historians today with their intricate design and implausible construction. These structures, seemingly built for gathering and religious rites, are specifically designed to mark the changing positions of the sun at the solstices and equinoxes throughout the year, and even appear to have long term astronomical event placements still being re-discovered. By the time of the post-Roman European peoples, the day was celebrated as the feast of Yule - where Scandinavian and Germanic peoples believed that Odin, the All Father, rode through the night sky in his fiery chariot, driving back the Darkness and releasing the souls of the dead from their earthly haunting into Valhalla.

Early European Christianity evolved with, rather than against, our ancient traditions rooted the natural rhythms of the world around us. Many pre-Christian legends and traditions evolved into elements of Christian tales and traditions, many of whom are still actively practiced to this day. The material traditions surrounding the Christian feast of Christmas in European culture draws heavily off ancient Yuletide traditions rooted in traditional Midwinter and the festival of the Winter Solstice - the great ancient celebration of Light over Darkness.

However, where Christmas has in the modern era become a single event, progressively inching earlier in our calendars thanks to commercialization; Yule or Yuletide was meant to last all winter long. Medieval Christianity marked the 12 days of Christmas, ending loosely on Epiphany, still celebrated in Spanish-speaking parts of the world as Día de los Reyes Magos. Many historians view the 12 Days of Christmas as an evolution of the Yuletide customs of our ancient past. But the meaning behind the Winter Solstice, and Yuletide extended much further than 12 days of partying and feasting, but dictated a perspective on the entirety of the winter season itself.

To better understand our historical traditions around winter, we have to remember what life was like for much of human history prior to modernization. The climate changed drastically during this time of year, ushering in a host of changes in our daily rhythms. Excess livestock was slaughtered in winter, both for nourishment but also to minimize risks of losing livestock in the harsh winter weather due to either the elements or illness; so there was great feasting on meat unlike at other times of the year when the livestock was preserved for other uses. Imagine hearty foods, that both deeply nourished and warmed the body being what was traditionally eaten by our ancestors during the cold winter months. Those traditional recipes - stews, pot roasts, braises, and multi-ingredient simmer-pot soups - were the foods that nourished, sustained, and warmed through the damp frigid weeks and days. People gathered together more in winter too, both to keep warm by conserving fuel among households, but also for company in the long dreary weeks with little to do. In our largely agrarian societies, there was little work to do in the winter compared to the great labors of spring, summer, and autumn - leaving humanity to rest in the winter just the same as the earth did. Even into the late Middle Ages, wars would often pause over-winter and armies would wait for the thaw to resume conflict. Travel was impeded by the weather all the way up to the early modern period, so most business and even statecraft simply took the time off until Spring. Winter was a time for pause, reflection, rest and togetherness historically - whether we liked it or not.

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Therein lies the snag - despite thousands of years of winters, humanity clearly didn’t get the message (mostly) that maybe there was a reason for this winter rest. When modern convenience brings our work to our desks and light to our fingertips, and encases us in temperature-controlled vehicles for travel - we quickly disregard the gentle nudges of wintertime encouraging us to rest and recuperate, and gather as a community. If anything, within a few generations, we now curse the blasted cold and wet, complain about the obstacles to productivity, and the overall struggle to be as productive during winter as we are the rest of the year. As time has gone on, we even avoid social interaction, holiday parties and the like, more and more - seeing it as an unnecessary hassle and waste of time. We expect for there to be no change in our rhythms; as if we are machines, operating mechanically at maximum measurable productivity without change unless some obstacle (like illness, tiredness, or emotional needs) arises to disrupt. There you have the inefficiency of being human; of being living and finite, flawed and imbued with the divine. Never was there a more modern statement - in all its dystopian smalleness.

Now, there are parts of the world and communities that held onto remnants of this older mentality towards Winter and rest, even through modernization, and set a stark example for the rest of the world of how things could be if we changed our perspective. Much has been made over the last 5 years or so, of the Scandinavian tradition of Hygge, and with good reason. As the rest of the Western world is hitting critical levels of exhaustion, slowed productivity, societal breakdown, rising national debt and slowing investment; the Scandinavian countries are gaining in educational quality, societal happiness and productivity, and national wealth and prestige. From a global standpoint, the glowing regional report card still comes as a bit of a surprise as to how - the Scandinavian countries are tiny after all, with many national policies that were scoffed at in the last century when bigger players like the USA, UK, and EU block were gearing up for the nuclear and technological age of supremacy. But now, after more than 70 years, the Scandinavians seem to have had a traditional wisdom we lost in our haste for ambition.

Hygge - is a Danish and Norwegian word that encompasses a general approach to life, that incorporates rest and enjoyment into everyday and every season according to the changing rhythms of time. If you ask a Dane or Norwegian to define Hygge, they will struggle to summarize it, because it is such a broad concept for their culture. Everyone in Scandinavian culture more or less lives the concepts of Hygge in their daily life, and it would be socially strange if someone did not exhibit the norms associated with this perspective. When you are sick, you take time off to recover without social stigma - that is Hygge. When you are pregnant and postpartum, you take time to nest, rest, grow and recover without guilt - that is Hygge. When your children are small, you go home early from work to care for them and spend time with them as a family - that is Hygge. As you age, you retire or work less, take up a hobby and spend time enjoying life - that is Hygge. When the seasons change, you might put warm blankets on every bed or plan quality time outside according to the season - even that small difference is Hygge. When it comes to Winter, the Scadinavians today take a much more relaxed view on work and productivity - most professions become work-from-home for those months, and professional goals are relaxed to accommodate the season of rest and recuperation. And yet - they are still a very productive society by modern standards, with successful industries and robust healthcare and education systems.

What strikes me most about the comparison of the Scandinavian concept of Hygge and the rest of the modern Western world, is that it is not so much a great “difference” culturally between say the US and the Scandinavians, but rather a surviving remnant of an older way of thinking and living fundamental to Western tradition. All of us living in or descended from Western Europe have a heritage of something akin to Hygge; be it Yuletide, or simply Midwinter, our cultural traditions around rest and recuperation especially in the season of winter, are just the same. The difference is, that we forgot our roots.

The tradition of Hygge in Scandinavian culture is an active reminder that rest, enjoyment and social time IS in and of itself productive in an intangible way. When we as individuals and as part of a wider society, provide space for rest and enjoyment to be a valued part of our active lifestyles; we become more efficient and innovative in our professional pursuits as well, because our emotional and physical wellbeing are provided for in the most meaningful ways. In a broader sense as well, society thrives when all of its individuals are thriving and growing with a view on long term societal investment.

Very much in the spirit of this tradition, I personally have taken an extremely relaxed perspective on this winter season. I first drafted this piece in early January, and then genuinely “paused” when other priorities took precedence. I rested my body, focused on creating a warm nurturing atmosphere in my home, and took the space needed to tackle the emotional demands of my days without stress of meeting unnecessary deadlines. So, you are reading this piece in early February instead of mid-January. So what? Chances are, you all are also ready to read this piece now anyway. But more importantly, I took the time to meet mine and my family's needs before “the hustle” over the last few weeks - I wasn’t talking about hygge, I was living it.

I hope you feel inspired and a little more knowledgeable about traditional concepts around winter, rest, and recuperation after reading this. Let us go gently into this new year of ours; and if we do anything with determination, let it be a determination to not be shaken or swayed from our conviction to live happily and at peace with the world around us. Storms pass, troubles come knocking, and we will stand calm and strong because we nurture our roots with care. We are determined to be resilient.

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