A year ago, the Danes reached into their groaning cracker barrel and pulled out ‘hygge’ as their own solution to the world’s problems. That was bad enough, but now it is the Swedes’ turn, offering up ‘lagom’ as the shrine before which all must now grovel in untimely worship. Yet what are both of these but replays of two hoary classical injunctions?
‘Hygge’ ultimately stems from the philosopher Epicurus (d. 271 bc):
‘He who needs tomorrow least will approach it with the most pleasure.’ In his take on the subject, the poet Horace (d. 8 bc) urged Leuconoe to ‘trust as little as possible in tomorrow’ and instead carpe diem, usually translated ‘seize the day’. Carpo in fact meant ‘I pluck, gather, pick, pull’, used of fruit, flowers etc., and then of what was transitory – kisses, dreams, the breath of life, etc.
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