“Hygge is cocoa by candlelight; a kind of emotional happiness, cosiness and togetherness. It’s no coincidence that the Danish word for ‘spoilsport’ translates to ‘the one who puts out the candles’”

Meik Wiking is a happiness guru – an advocate for hygge and a collector of smiles. He tells Catherine Butler why enjoying togetherness is what makes him, and the Danes as a nation, the happiest in the world

Meik Wiking is a happy chap. On a scale of nought to 10, he claims to be a solid nine. That’s quite a tall order for anyone at the tail-end of a whistle-stop business trip to London, but he’s the director of the Copenhagen-based Happiness Research Institute, so he probably knows what he’s talking about. Plus, he’s Danish, and the Danes have once again topped the charts as the world’s happiest people. “You could say we’re the happiest country in the world,” says Meik, with a broad smile. Lean, lightly tanned, with a European long-short haircut… as if this former Danish think-tank director needed any more credentials as poster boy for living Danishly, his surname is also pronounced ‘Viking’ So what keeps Denmark at the top of the world’s happiness rankings?…

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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2016 - Issue 52

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