Friluftsliv: embrace winter Norwegian-style

Follow the Scandinavians’ lead by heading outdoors during the cooler months

Hikers resting in Norway
(Image credit: ©Thomas Rasmus Skaug/VisitNorway.com)

“Much as we Scandinavians are famous for our love of hygge – that cosy hunkering down in our woollen socks, with our candles lit, sheltered from the elements – we are just as passionate about going outdoors in rain, sleet or snow,” writes happiness researcher Meik Wiking in The Sunday Times. This love of outdoor living is known as friluftsliv (pronounced free-loofts-liew; literally “free-air life”).

Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen popularised the term in the 1850s, and Scandinavians today use it to refer to everything from a woodland run during their lunch break to joining friends for a lakeside sauna. And “as the nights draw in and coronavirus restrictions limit indoor socialising for so many people in Britain, it is not hygge but friluftsliv that will get you through the winter months”, says Wiking.

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