I grew up in the Netherlands, where we spoke Dutch, the language of the country.
It is not an easy language, and it is quite guttural.
Gezelligheid, the noun, and gezellig, the adjective, cannot be translated into English. I see these as not just words, but a state of mind, and I will try to explain the meaning.
Gezelligheid describes a state of mind where you feel happy, comfortable, and safe because you are with family, friends, or other special people.
A few gezelligheid occasions come immediately to mind to help me illustrate this concept. When I was very young and we were still in hiding, my parents, our friend Selma, and my brother and I sat around a table and played games. My brother and I felt safe—there was a warmth around us. That made us happy. There is no age limit for gezelligheid.
Later, when my family returned to Holland in 1948, after living in Sweden for two years, we lived in a large rambling house called the Blauwe Vogel (Blue Bird). All the nooks and crannies made the house perfect for gezelligheid. We had a large, round dining table, but on Sundays, we had our dinner at a much smaller round table in front of a roaring fire. We sat close to one another and instead of a hot meal, Mom put out delicious breads, cold cuts, soft-boiled eggs, and cheese. When there was time after dessert (mostly fruit), Mom or Dad told us stories. On Sundays we went to bed happy after all the gezelligheid.
Later, when my children were growing up, our family had a summer house at a lake in Vinkeveen, Holland. It belonged to my parents and their children. Since we lived in Belgium at that time, we used it a lot and very often together with my sister and her three daughters. We rowed, sailed, and swam together. We cooked big meals and played cards and games at night. I remember us always laughing.
We would make a breakfast list at night before going to bed, and the girls—together we had six girls—would get up early, row part of the way, dock the boat near the parking lot, and then walk the rest of the way to the bakery for fresh bread every morning. My husband Sidney and my niece Clara had July birthdays, two days apart, and our whole family used to come to celebrate. The bakery always made a square-yard strawberry tart for the occasion and again the girls picked it up and it arrived at our house via rowboat.
We try to celebrate all our special times together, and it is always gezellig.
At the end of my dad’s life, when he was in so much pain, I told him that we all knew how much he loved us and how much we loved him, and that if he thought that the time had come to leave us, it would be all right.
He answered: “Not yet.It is so gezellig to be together.”
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