Fredagsmys / Friday Cozy. Photo: Susan Walström

Fredagsmys literally means “Friday cozy.” This Swedish concept is about treating yourself after a long week. Oddly enough, it was made famous by a marketing campaign for chips. This week on the blog, we’ll pull from a resource called Det svenska köket and dig into the fredagsmys concept.

Svenska institutet’s Det Svenska köket från fika till fredagsmys – “The Swedish Kitchen, From Fika till Fredagsmys” is a 50-page publication and introduction to Swedish food. It is broken down into 8 eight categories, with a quick introduction and recipes to highlight each concept. The chapters include: 

1. Fika (coffee break)  2. Vardagsmiddag, weekday dinners 3. Grillfest (grill party)
4. Frukost (breakfast) 5. Nära naturen (close to nature), 6. Lunch – same word
7. Fredagsmys (Cozy Friday) 8.  Festmiddag (dinner party)

Nummer sju (number seven) is our focus this week; fredagsmys!
You may have guessed by now that fredag means Friday, so what about the mys part? Well, in short mys means cozy, but I wrote a whole blog on just how much Swedes enjoy their mys, here. Fredagsmys is about treating yourself at the end of a long week.

Culinarily speaking, simple, yet yummy comfort food comes to mind; pizza, perhaps pasta, tacos, maybe even some thai take out. Many folks like to cook as a family or invite friends over for a chill evening. Enjoying an adult beverage or perhaps a cup of tea over a bowl of chips is commonplace for fredagsmys as well. 

…speaking of chips, the Swedish chip company OLW has put some wind under the sails of the whole fredagsmys concept. “Det är dags för fredagsmys. It’s time for Friday cozy” is the line in a famous jingle that virtually even Swede can sing. Here’s an ad from 2011 with the popular song below:

Det finns en dag då man kan andas ut

Man slipper chefens tjat och kommer hem till slut

Since I moved here all I do is mys and mys (Yes we do)

De är dags för fredagsmys om de är så är det sista jag gör

Snart är det fredagsmys

Hoppas inte föräldrarna stör

Nu är de slut på veckan

De är dags för fredagsmys

OLW has a few versions of this ad. Here is Fredagsmys 2.0 from 2015:

Det svenska köket is something I plan to come back to a few times to highlight some of the other chapters. More texts like this one are available via SI’s Sharing Sweden website. 

Alright, now it’s your turn – what type of mysig food do you like to enjoy on a cozy evening?