How to love a cold winter: the secret of the Norwegians

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

There are only a couple of weeks before winter, and many are already in the mood to complain about snow, wind and almost round-the-clock darkness. But Kari Leibowitz, a graduate student at Stanford University, offers a different perspective. She spent almost a year in northern Norway to understand how the locals manage to survive the long winters. Know we have a lot to learn from the Norwegians!

Winter is close, which means that it is time for almost round-the-clock darkness, cold weather and depression. Do you already feel this endless grumbling under your breath with or without reason? For the next few months, we will be complaining about bad weather, freezing and putting on a ton of clothes. All this leads to the question: how to cope with the winter blues?

It turns out that it's not about the season, but about ourselves. This is the conclusion reached by Stanford University graduate student Kari Leibovitz, who conducted research from August 2014 to June 2015 in Tromsø, a city in northern Norway, far beyond the Arctic Circle. So far away that the sun does not rise above the horizon from November to January!

Leibovitz studied the psychological state of local residents, who, in theory, should have become discouraged (still, not seeing the sun for three months). But, as it turned out, the scale of the winter depression was much lower than the world average.

Kari asked the locals: "Why don't you get discouraged?" After all, residents of other countries of the northern hemisphere (Russians too) do this. To which she received the answer: "Why do we need this?" Kari realized that such a question in these parts sounds inappropriate. In northern Norway, people perceive winter as a gift, not an endless torment.

Lessons from the Far North

An important factor in this perception of winter is local communities. They are very close-knit, have strong social bonds that enrich everyone's life. An analogy can be drawn with the small peoples of the North in Russia: Chukchi, Evenk, Khanty, Mansi - here social ties are just as strong. But this is not the whole Norwegian secret.

First, Norwegians celebrate almost all of their holidays in winter. Leibovitz says the locals couldn't wait for the ski season to start. For them, there is no concept of "bad weather", there is only inappropriate clothing.

We have a similar situation with the holidays. New Year, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Defender of the Fatherland Day - all of them occur just in the winter.

The Norwegians have the word koselig, which means a sense of comfort. People love to get together, light candles, drink warm drinks and bask under the blankets. Tromsø hosts many festivals and public events that give everyone a sense of community and active pastime.

Finally, people are literally enchanted by the beauty of winter landscapes. From November to January, when the sun does not rise above the horizon, amazing footage can be captured, Leibovitz says.

Change the setting

Most of us, of course, do not live in Tromsø, and not everyone has a fireplace for emotional gatherings in the house, but there are things that we are quite capable of changing. “In the States, we grumble a lot about the winter, and it's hard to be in a good mood when everyone else is complaining,” Kari said.

Instead of swearing over frost and wind, find opportunities in winter to enjoy life. This is skiing, and hockey, and snowmen, and snow removal (this activity is liked by many), and the pleasant feeling of returning to a warm house after a cold. Spend time with friends: being alone is more boring at any time of the year, even in summer.

“This is not a super difficult task. Be mindful of this and change your usual negative winter attitudes to positive ones,”advises Leibovitz.

This is especially true for us, residents of Russia. No matter how much we love summer and warmth, we must not forget that Russia is predominantly a northern country. And instead of counting down the days until the beginning of summer, you should just enjoy the wonderful moments of winter.