Thursday, June 22, 2006
Sweet, light midnight
Well, it's that time of year again. Starting last night, the arctic sun has slowly begun suffering defeat against the northern forces of darkness...or our planet's freaky movements in the galaxy or something. Hey, I'm a historian, not a friggin astronomer, so cut me some slack in my cosmic train of thought ok!
Around midnight last night I ran outside to capture the longest day of the year on film. The picture does not do the summer solstice justice because I was keen on capturing that eletric clock down the road at the same time. You are just going to have to believe me when I say that it was a beautiful night and I felt happy strutting around my mum's garden wearing a t-shirt in a whopping 8 degrees. That's quite warm for midnight during our minimalistic summer up here in the north.
The real celebration of the summer solstice still remains the Julian calendar's longest day, the 24th of June, Jónsmessa or the Mass of St John. It's typical for the Church and at the same time devilishly clever to celebrate saints and sons of God coincident with ancient celebrations of the coming of light. Triple hurray and 10 rock-points for the Church! Just like Christmas, we celebrate Jónsmessa with a pagan twist here in the land of the ice and snow. This night is perfect for outings in dubious places because in all the daylight, evil creatures have minimal powers. It's also perfect for mountain climbing to look for wishing stones, and believe me, those things can come in handy, just try not to lose them.
The cows speak in the stables during the night of the 24th and they can be pretty mean, so if you want to stay sane, stay out of the stables of the Let's-make-people-insane-with-cow-gibberish Icelandic cows. By the way, if you fancy a seal bride, just pop by the beach on the 24th, because there you can find dancing seal maidens that have taken off their seal skin and voila...they look pretty presentable as human gals.
Seals and cows are not the only animals that behave in a strange manner during this magical night. The strangest Icelandic animals, homo sapiens sapiens, tend to take off all their clothes, jump over three fences and roll around in the dew starting shortly after midnight and continuing until the morning hours. This is done in order to gain full health until they do it again next year. On-lookers should be fairly warned to bring shades to this happening since the naked bodies of Icelanders suffer from the lack of the scorching hot sun to bake their flesh and give it a wee bit darker tone. Yes, most of us are unnaturally pale according to EU standards, it's a cultural thing and our prerogative so if you have a problem with it cover your eyes huh!
Yo, I never said we were normal...I ask you, who the heck can stay sane when they don't get a proper night's sleep for months because of the darn bright nights, sniff sniff...
It's a blessing we're far away from other countries during the summer so that others think we're of sound mind and super cultured and not just weird or as the Icelandic saying goes: The distance makes the mountains blue and the men great...
# posted by Björkin : 3:45 PM
