Midsummer in Norway, also known as Sankthansaften or Jonsok, is a
holiday celebrated nationwide, usually on the night of June 23. The summer in North Cape, Norway, the most northern point of Europe, has light for the entire 24 hours a day. No wonder they call this country the Land of the Midnight Sun.
The further north you go, the more prominent is the Midnight Sun. The naturally illuminated night enables you to do things you can’t do anywhere else in the world such as sit outside and read your newspaper at midnight. But this might be bad news if you're trying to catch a little sleep (many folks living up north break out the blackout curtains on this time), but it's fantastic if you're throwing a late-night party.
We don’t get the midnight sun in Stavanger (south part of Norway), but it doesn’t get dark at this time of this year for more than two hours, and even then it’s only really dusk. Watching the sun set at almost 12 midnight and show up again at 2 am can be a very novel experience for people living along latitudes towards the center of our planet. While I found this the most amazing phenomenon while living in Norway. For people living closer to the Arctic in the North Pole and Antarctic in the South Pole, it’s something they have got used to. There are large seasonal variations in day light throughout the year in Norway.
The complete absence of a night sky in the summer months of June and July, when the sun barely manages to descend beneath the horizon, can be a weird feeling, jeopardizing our tropical concept of mornings and evenings. Conversely, the sun refuses to show up during the winter months of November to January. Add to this the natural occurrence of the Northern lights (aurora borealis) in the inky backdrop of the polar night sky and the surreal experience is complete. This celestial display, seen as dancing sheets or flames of light, in varied hues of green, yellow, red and a rare blue, is truly astounding.
I feel lucky to witness this mystical spectacle last Christmas in Tromsø. So far, I have managed to avoid the freezing Norway winters, not only because I dislike insulated living shuttling between heated rooms and heated modes of transport, but also because I miss that life sustaining radiance of the sun’s rays, of which even a glimmer is not expected on some days of the Norwegian winter months.
Wandering through this beautiful land of fiords, it was these atmospheric phenomenons, typical to high latitude regions that kept intriguing me. In Norway, just as in other regions of Scandinavia, it’s a very important time of the year with interesting peasant traditions. The highlight of the midsummer night celebration is the huge bonfire that is lighted at midnight.
The further north you go, the more prominent is the Midnight Sun. The naturally illuminated night enables you to do things you can’t do anywhere else in the world such as sit outside and read your newspaper at midnight. But this might be bad news if you're trying to catch a little sleep (many folks living up north break out the blackout curtains on this time), but it's fantastic if you're throwing a late-night party.
We don’t get the midnight sun in Stavanger (south part of Norway), but it doesn’t get dark at this time of this year for more than two hours, and even then it’s only really dusk. Watching the sun set at almost 12 midnight and show up again at 2 am can be a very novel experience for people living along latitudes towards the center of our planet. While I found this the most amazing phenomenon while living in Norway. For people living closer to the Arctic in the North Pole and Antarctic in the South Pole, it’s something they have got used to. There are large seasonal variations in day light throughout the year in Norway.
The complete absence of a night sky in the summer months of June and July, when the sun barely manages to descend beneath the horizon, can be a weird feeling, jeopardizing our tropical concept of mornings and evenings. Conversely, the sun refuses to show up during the winter months of November to January. Add to this the natural occurrence of the Northern lights (aurora borealis) in the inky backdrop of the polar night sky and the surreal experience is complete. This celestial display, seen as dancing sheets or flames of light, in varied hues of green, yellow, red and a rare blue, is truly astounding.
I feel lucky to witness this mystical spectacle last Christmas in Tromsø. So far, I have managed to avoid the freezing Norway winters, not only because I dislike insulated living shuttling between heated rooms and heated modes of transport, but also because I miss that life sustaining radiance of the sun’s rays, of which even a glimmer is not expected on some days of the Norwegian winter months.
Wandering through this beautiful land of fiords, it was these atmospheric phenomenons, typical to high latitude regions that kept intriguing me. In Norway, just as in other regions of Scandinavia, it’s a very important time of the year with interesting peasant traditions. The highlight of the midsummer night celebration is the huge bonfire that is lighted at midnight.
