Autumn Hygge
Reading through a long, convoluted series of Brandon Sanderson books, I stumbled on the word hearthlight. What a beautiful word and what a beautiful image it brings to mind. Hearthlight. Not a burning, blinding terror of light, not even a revealing beam of light, but a calm, glowing, flickering, welcoming, gather-in-and-be-tended light. Not a warrior light—mighty and true—but a feminine light. Hearthlight.
Slowly, slowly the days have started to shorten. My dark mornings last long and the evenings encroach more quickly. The months of summer have slipped away and holidays and the year’s end loom. School buses pass through the neighborhood and it’s time to pack summer away and welcome autumn back.
I have an autumn soul. Blame my Mom who instilled a deep love of Yankee autumn in her southern born-and-raised children. Blame Tolkien, Harry Potter, or Watership Down. Blame a love of holidays. Blame years of working in the fashion industry: wool and cashmere are so much better than flimsy cotton tees. The changing of the leaves, the hope of coolness creeping in, rain, wind, it’s all so refreshing after summer’s endless heat. Because I love this season, it’s almost hard for me to define Hygge in autumn. It’s so ingrained.
Autumn is a mood, a feel, a settled, deep happiness. It’s like a cloak you wear from September-November. Each month, as Liz says, is “getting richer” and deeper in its magic, culminating at Thanksgiving with a mighty feast before we slip into winter. (My second favorite season.)
The other side of Autumn for me is the honest recognition of my limitations (life has to stay simple) and the limitations of living in the south. No matter how much I wish for something different, September 1st was still 100 degrees and my sweaters were still packed away. I don’t get to wake up instantly on the first day of Autumn to chill mornings, warm afternoons, and changed leaves. (Except for this year, when the 1st day of Autumn started at a beautiful 59 degrees. It won’t last, but it’s wonderful while it does.) Autumn comes slowly here, but it does come.
So, how do we Autumn Hygge?
● Change out Textures: go for richer and thicker
● Change out Colors: Orange, gold, burgundy
● Fall Reading: head back to Hogwarts or pull out the scary stories
● Make your first pot of Chili
● Notice shorter days
● Change up chalkboards or wall art
● Incorporate squash back into meals
● Sweet Potatoes
● Hunt down branches and leaves for decorating instead of flowers
● Pumpkin. Pumpkin everything
● Iced pumpkin drinks
● Stouts
● Apple Cider
Autumn bucket lists are often unattainable for me, and may be for you as well. Where I have health issues, many of you have busy family lives, so what’s a more realistic autumn list to create a sense of Hygge?
● Talk more walks as the leaves change
● Create leaf bouquets
● Forage for nature you can bring inside
● Leaf fights
● Create leaf piles and jump in them
● Decorate, even with just a pumpkin at the door to welcome you home
● Trick or Treating
● Autumn movies like Practical Magic or Harry Potter
● Bake all the pumpkin things!
● Savor the light of early morning
● Simmer soups on the back burner or in the crockpot
● Visit a pumpkin patch
● Make daily lists of thanksgivings
Remember, Hygge is creating an environment of wellness and contentment, an environment of coziness. This can be done through decorating, experiences, food, and just the general overturn of the home as the AC is used less and blankets are more abundant. Hygge, as a believer, is all about enjoying the delights of the Noahadic Covenant:
While the earth remains,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night,
shall not cease.
Genesis 8:22
God promised us the changing of the seasons and the food that they would produce. Autumn is given to us to enjoy! It is a time of harvest, a promised event, and a gracious act of God. He promised us seasons and every year, when Autumn overtakes summer, God is showing His faithfulness. What is not to celebrate?
Now, you may not be the Autumn fanatic that I and my extended family are. You may not change out your decorating or care about pumpkins. You may loathe the end of summer and hate cold weather. That’s fine. God made us all with unique things we enjoy. God loves diversity and so some of us were created to enjoy summer and some to enjoy Autumn and some to enjoy things other than seasons. Diversity is a rich gift.
What I would suggest is to notice. You will change things in your home because of the season. You can’t wear shorts and flip-flops in the winter…okay, you can, but you will be miserable. You will probably run your heater and put blankets on the bed as the days get colder. You will turn the lights on earlier as the days get shorter. If you take note of these changes and choose to embrace them as signs of God’s faithfulness, you can practice Hygge as an act of worship because God has done what He promised to do. Why would you not want to notice that? Why would you deny yourself and your family the delights of seeing God keep His word? So maybe, just maybe, this year you should try to purposefully notice Autumn and purposefully Hygge.
Now, I’m fully aware of the fact that I tend to view life romantically. Not romance stories or rom-coms, but as a romantic at heart.
“…we need this life of practical romance; this combination of something that is strange with something that is secure. We need so to view the world as to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome. We need to be happy in this wonderland without once being merely comfortable.” – GK Chesterton
I’ve been a romantic all my life, naturally and nurtured, cultivated, through books with rich descriptions and movies beautifully filmed. I love welcome and wonder, not being 100% comfortable here so that we still marvel at the world, at my 41st autumn. It should still delight me even though I’ve experienced autumn many many times. I love this idea. I’m a romantic.
I love seeing, observing, noticing the beauty of everything from the grass under my toes to the starry-filled night. I love the exaggerated aesthetics of cottagecore and goblincore, even when I know life on a farm or in the forest is far more blood and guts than most city girls or suburban girls will ever understand.
For those less romantically inclined, for those more like Marilla Cuthbert and less like Anne, what do you do with all this seasonal silliness?
First, don’t detract from someone’s simple delight in it just because you don’t care. This isn’t saying don’t tease, I know exactly how basic white-girl I’m being. Just don’t be mean. It’s fine that you don’t care, but don’t belittle someone who does.
Second, recognize that whether you like it or not, whether it thrills you or not, as a homemaker you have to deal with seasonal changes. You have a family that will need boots and blankets and sweaters at some point. Pay attention. You may never buy a pumpkin but you still have seasonal responsibilities. Have you ever considered them, taking note of them intentionally? And, have you ever considered enjoying them? Choosing to enjoy them?
Third, always remember, HearthKeepers, that comfort, tenderness, and home are important. All of us need this reminder. Our men are on the frontlines or maybe just struggling to provide. Our children are bombarded with lies and the harshness of this world. And we are under attack, both internally from our sins, and externally from the world. Home is a temporary blessing of rest that should flow into our churches, which point us to eternal rest.
Our homes are a great place of practice for the bigger work of church membership. Practice the warmth of Hygge in your home so you may practice it in church. You are the center of love and comfort for your husband and children. Practice at home so you have a trained eye to see those in your church who are poor, who are a bit weary, a bit broken in need of help, maybe burnt out, maybe cut off, or maybe struggling with why being in church is important. Notice who is there as well as who isn’t so you can tend both as you are able.
We women are called and commanded to tend our homes. This is what we do as followers of Christ, as women, as church members. Our hearthlight shines out beyond the four walls that house our families. It shines in our churches. Not as ministries that take us away from home, but in tending to our homes.
Cold darkness is met and matched by warmth! Stay in the fight!
