The revival of winter baths in Northern Europe

Winter bathing in freezing water, an age-old ritual in Scandinavia that dates back to the Viking Age more than 1,000 years ago, has reached an unprecedented peak in popularity in Denmark since the start of the coronavirus pandemic . Isolated by semi-confinement and teleworking, the Danes have broken their loneliness by finding new moments of hygge (“well-being”) by diving together in icy water.

Caroline Bryld, a blonde in her fifties, emerged frozen from a “very brief” dip in the sea in December, before running to the sauna next door. “The water is barely 2 degrees,” says this fan of winter swimming at the Charlottenlund Sobad club, a historic wooden pool on stilts, bathed by the Oresund, the Strait of Bal…