People had to come up with another way to meet for kaffi, so they kind of inverted the word and started meeting for fika instead.
While Swedish people can be described as calm, distant and unsocial, the tradition of fika shows that they air on the side of being anything but those things. During the long dreary autumn and winters, I imagine that such a sociable institution helps one feel connected and makes the gloomy days a little better. It's probably why Sweden is one of the highest-ranked countries based on coffee consumption per capita!
