While many have their own hobbies that keep them going through the cold dark winter months here – ice swimming, cross-country skiing, walking on the “ice road” out into the archipelago – one thing remains a problem: loneliness. In an attempt to counter that, authorities in Luleå have launched a campaign to ease that social isolation, ever so slightly, by encouraging people to say hello to one another.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
On the snowy shore of the northern Swedish city of Luleå, bathers are lowering themselves into a rectangular hole in the frozen seawater.
It means people who meet each other, don’t know each other, become a little happier,” says Pontus Wikström, 61, the chair of the winter bathing group Kallis Luleå.
Micael Dahlen, a professor in wellbeing, welfare and happiness at Stockholm School of Economics, says that while loneliness – especially among the young – is a global problem, perhaps Sweden, with its dark, cold winters, is more aware of it.
She wants the city, which is undergoing a period of rapid growth as it tries to attract tens of thousands of new people to work in “green” industry and other services, to not grow more atomised as a result.
Swedish people, Hashemi, has found, take longer to warm up: “They tend to know somebody for a long time and then become more friendly and open to that person.”
Personally, Hashemi has found that vitamin D, gaming, work and study help him get through the winter months – as well as installing a few white lights in his home.
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