Dave and I are watching the third season of the television series Ted Lasso. Ted is an American college football coach from Kansas who moves to London when he is hired to coach a professional English soccer team.
In the episode Dave and I watched last night the team is in Amsterdam for an exhibition game.
While on a walk after the game the team’s owner Rebecca accidentally falls into a canal and is rescued by a Dutch man who takes her to his houseboat to dry off and warm up.
Her new friend makes dinner for Rebecca and introduces her to the Dutch word gezellig. He uses it several times during their evening together. He explains that the word can’t be translated into English but means something like cosy.
I found that intriguing and so this morning I looked up gezellig and discovered it is indeed a very special word in Holland. Some people say it is at the very heart of Dutch culture.
According to Wikipedia, it does mean cosy but also, quaint, or nice. It can describe time spent with a loved one, seeing a friend after a long time or just being together with family.
I can think of lots of times I’ve felt gezellig.
Last Thursday morning a new granddaughter named Hattie Lou was added to our family and getting to hold her in the hospital that evening was definitely gezellig.
Being together with my three marvellous sisters-in-law at a wedding earlier this month was gezellig.
Chilling out at a cosy Winnipeg coffeeshop can be gezellig.
A gezellig dinner with my sister during our bicycle trip together in Croatia.
This was definitely a gezellig moment in a waterfall in Costa Rica.
Getting to know these two lively women and eating excellent food and sharing great wine and conversation with them in Stellenbosch South Africa was a terrific gezellig experience I had in February.
Curling up with a good book gives me the most gezellig feeling ever.
You can find so many different synonyms for gezellig online-homey, friendly, snuggly, fun, comfortable or enjoyable.
But most people who try to define it in English says that is impossible to do because no word in our language can really describe gezellig and that’s because it’s a feeling and not just a word.
When do you feel gezellig?
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