{"id":1089,"date":"2024-12-14T07:27:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T07:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2024-12-22T01:31:20","modified_gmt":"2024-12-22T01:31:20","slug":"polar-night-norway-svalbard-arctic-winter-deep-appreciation-nature-calm-peaceful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/polar-night-norway-svalbard-arctic-winter-deep-appreciation-nature-calm-peaceful\/","title":{"rendered":"Polar night: how Norwegian towns make the most of sunless winter with “deep appreciation for nature”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

(quote)

\n\nThe Norwegian Town Where the Sun Doesn\u2019t Rise<\/a>
\nI spent a year in Troms\u00f8, Norway, where the \u201cPolar Night\u201d lasts all winter\u2014and where rates of seasonal depression are remarkably low. Here\u2019s what I learned about happiness and the wintertime blues.

\n\nLocated more than 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Troms\u00f8, Norway, is home to extreme light variation between seasons. During the Polar Night, which lasts from November to January, the sun doesn\u2019t rise at all. Then the days get progressively longer until the Midnight Sun period, from May to July, when it never sets. After the midnight sun, the days get shorter and shorter again until the Polar Night, and the yearly cycle repeats.

\n\nDespite the city\u2019s extreme darkness, past research has shown that residents of Troms\u00f8 have lower rates of wintertime depression than would be expected given the long winters and high latitude. In fact, the prevalence of self-reported depression during the winter in Troms\u00f8, with its latitude of 69\u00b0N, is the same as that of Montgomery County, Maryland, at 41\u00b0N.

\n\nEight years into living in Longyearbyen, on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, I embrace the seasonal plunge into total darkness<\/a>
\nAt 78 degrees north latitude, which is about 12 degrees farther north than the lower boundary of the Arctic Circle, Svalbard is no stranger to polar night. Throughout this period of darkness, the sun remains hidden from us. The sun\u2019s position is so distant that no light reaches Svalbard at all, casting the sky into a perpetual state of pitch-black darkness. Here, only the moon, the stars and the occasional appearances of the northern lights offer up some natural light for us during this everlasting night.

\t\n\nPolar night is the season that takes place each year inside polar circles when night lasts for more than 24 hours. This phenomenon occurs in the Arctic and Antarctic Circles due to the Earth\u2019s rotation in relation to where the sun is positioned. Because the Earth rotates on a tilted axis at 23.5 degrees, there are periods of the year when the areas located in the polar circles on the top and bottom of our planet are either completely obscured from or completely exposed to the light of the sun.

\t\n\nSvalbard is far enough north to feel the full effects of polar night and witness nearly three months of complete darkness between the middle of November and the end of January. Although you might assume this time of year is the most challenging period for the locals who call Svalbard home, I quickly learned after my arrival that it is a season many people appreciate. The town of Longyearbyen carries on with daily life in the usual matter. The only notable difference is that everyone walks around with a headlamp permanently attached to their heads.

\t\n\nI believe the choice people make to live here significantly influences how we approach the various seasons, especially polar night. Those who can\u2019t embrace the extended darkness usually don\u2019t remain here for very long. Longyearbyen is full of individuals who have relocated here for all kinds of reasons, but I\u2019ve found that they often share a deep appreciation for nature. This comes in handy when learning to adapt to life on Svalbard, as the forces of nature play such a powerful role in shaping our daily lives here.

\n\nI once read an article about a journalist who traveled to Longyearbyen to write a piece about polar night. His goal was to gather insight from the locals about the challenges of living through the long, dark period. He anticipated that he would hear about how it was the worst time of the year. To his surprise, most people he interviewed shared their appreciation for the enchanting polar night. They described how our village transformed into an even closer-knit community during this time, and many people highlighted the beauty of the polar night season. They shared tales of the calm and peaceful atmosphere and how life in the darkness seems to follow a slower, more relaxed rhythm.

\n\nI\u2019ve always believed that our mind-sets and approaches to each season, particularly winter, significantly influence how we feel about it. Before the darkness of polar night fully sets in, I make a conscious effort to create a warm and cozy atmosphere in our living space. This includes hanging up a lot of string lights\u2014the delicate, copper-wire ones that resemble Christmas lights. I put them up everywhere, hanging them along the ceiling, nestling them inside glass vases, and discreetly placing them behind the books on our bookshelf. I love the ambience they create and the extra bit of light they provide during our darkest days. They just make me happy! … As you aim to cherish the beauty in the little things, the broader picture of the whole year and the changes that come with each season start to become more beautiful as well.

\n\n(unquote)

\n\nImage courtesy Cecilia Blomdahl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(quote) The Norwegian Town Where the Sun Doesn\u2019t Rise I spent a year in Troms\u00f8, Norway, where the \u201cPolar Night\u201d lasts all winter\u2014and where rates of seasonal depression are remarkably low. Here\u2019s what I learned about happiness and the wintertime blues. Located more than 200 miles north of the ArcticRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,8,12],"tags":[26,27,59,18,58,39,52,28,41,30],"class_list":["entry","author-wcp-story-teller","post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-figures-and-facts","category-health-and-lifestyle","category-life-nature-society","category-us-and-world","tag-facts","tag-figures","tag-health","tag-life","tag-lifestyle","tag-nature","tag-people","tag-places","tag-society","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldculturepictorial.com\/wcp-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}