Why Hiraeth really needs its Hygge moment

Remember in the early 2020s when you couldn’t move for Hygge? Seems an age ago now. You only had to glance round a bookshop or scroll through a social to see someone promoting the benefits of Hygge. It was a beautiful thing. The Danish term for creating an atmosphere of warmth and comfort, a space in which to surround yourself with good things in the good company of good people. Bliss.

Hygge was aspirational. Something for us all to aim for. Something for us to all remember.

Do you know the word Hiraeth? It’s a bit closer to home in that it’s Welsh. Hiraeth means a deep longing. Specifically, a deep longing for home.

Makes me think of grief.

A huge part of grief is the longing. We’re longing for our person; we’re longing because they were our home. We underestimate the loss of self which comes with someone’s death. We still go by the same name, look the same way, but we aren’t the person we were when they were breathing. That person also died and it’s natural that we long for them both. That we long for the ‘home’ we had together – the home of our relationship.

So, I’m championing a Hiraeth awareness campaign. Let’s acknowledge it like our sense of Hygge depends on it. Let’s print it on book covers, type it across socials.

Hiraeth is inevitable. Something for us all to embrace. Something that makes us human.