Vennskap News: It's The Dreary Time

It’s winter time and heavy clouds hide the sun. Snow covers the ground and it’s too cold to remain outside for any length of time. Christmas is over and nothing much to look forward to for some time.

Aliens overflying Earth might be astonished as they gaze upon our fine planet. Torrents of rain have caused mudslides in the Western US while our Southern communities are being rebuilt after hurricanes, storms and tornadoes raged from Florida to the North.The year 2015 has been cited as

having been the warmest year since weather records have been complied. What is happening? “El Nino! is the cause” according to some believers while other scoff, replying “ It’s just the law of averages.”
Whatever the reason, our air currents seem to be changing and when the normally north cold airflow sags southward and mixes with the warmer air flow, ‘things happen’.

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Digging out in Washington

Our North Eastern area is still shoveling out from a snowstorm that delivered as much snow in three days as residents normally experience in their entire winter! 2016 has only begun.

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Overseas, warmer than usual conditions in Norway has caused mountain snowcover to be unstable. An avalanche thundered down a mountainside in Norway’s northernmost archipelago of Svalbard during a December weekend in Svalbard’s main island of Spitsbergen

Avalanche in Longyearbyen

Longyearbyen

destroying ten homes, leaving one man dead and two children critically injured.This avalanche was caused by shifting temperatures and hurricane-strength winds. "Nearly 200 homes have been built at the foot of the mountains surrounding Longyearbyen, a remote Arctic settlement. " reported a Norwegian Broadcasting spokesman, but some geologists said they would likely never have been built today, given the avalanche danger that has grown in line with milder winters and climate changes.

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An American, John Longyear, started an Arctic Coal company and set up a mining operation for around 500 people in 1906. The settlement was naturally called "Longyear City." Today, it is known as Longyearbyen to all Norwegians and the world’s northernmost settlement with a population greater that 1,000 permanent residents. Major mining operations have moved away, but this settlement is currently known for tourism, the location of a University Center,as well as the site of one of the World Seed Vault and an prominent weather satellite station as well as for several other reasons.

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The ground in Svalbard is permafrost, which means the soil is permanently frozen year round. In

Longyearbyen on a clear day.

Longyearbyen, the permafrost ranges from 10 to 40 meters deep, with an active layer that melts each summer as the temperatures rise above freezing. Houses are built on pilings, or stilts to prevent flooding and sinking as the top layer melts!

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In Longyear, the sun ‘sets’ each year for the very last time around October 25th and is not fully visible above the horizon again for four months.

Midday at The Arctic Circle

The sun officially reappears on March 8th, when it is finally high enough above the horizon to illuminate buildings in the area . People in this area of the Arctic Circle are accustomed to this semi-darkness and learn to ‘live with it’. This time of the year is called the Murky Season or “Morkitiden”. Due to location in the mountains, this dark period varies from village to village, but the sun is mostly under the horizon until around March. Midday is “most illuminated “ as the sun approaches the horizon, but the sunlight is feeble.

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Watching for the sun's return

These days of ‘No sun’ are known as “The Polar Night”. At the end of these long four months, residents can look forward to a week-long celebration known as Solfestuka- the return of the sun. Children are dismissed from their schools to see the happy day of the sun’s first arrival over the horizon.

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Michael Emberley

Michael Emberley is a prominent author and illustrator of many

children’s books since 1979. Born in Massachusetts, Emberley now lives in Ireland, but one book written about the Norwegian winter became a favorite of Norwegian children, as his subject, a young Norwegian girl child became overwhelmed with the prolonged darkness and yearned for sunshine. The story became nationally popular.

In his story....

A book by Michael Emberley

The youngster lived in a small Norwegian village hidden deep between

mountains and it was the “Murky Time”. The little Norwegian girl, her
parents and friends grew weary of the darkness and as the time dragged on, the little girl convinced her parents to journey up the great mountain while encouraging many others to join them on their upward climb to “Welcome the sun!”. This story is probably read and enjoyed by Norwegian children every winter “Polar Night”in Scandinavia.

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Norwegians in the Arctic have earned to enjoy this time of perpetual darkness as the twilight reflects off the snow and the northern lights flash around the skiers often seen on lighted slopes. After returning

Koselig

next to the fire, they enjoy the warmth they call “koselig”- a feeling of coziness, candlelight, fellowship and fuzzy socks.
These people are content to live in their environment.
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No one even dies in Longyearbyen. It is against the law! This is because of the permafrost in the ground. Death is forbidden. Longyearbyen has

only a small graveyard that stopped accepting new burials over 70 years ago. The reason? Bodies never decompose. Scientists found that bodies remain perfectly preserved because of the permafrost.So if one is about to die, they are required to go somewhere else. It’s the law! (Cremation doesn’t seem to be acceptable).

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These people have learned to accept these harsh conditions. They are able to find the positive side, adapt to their country's conditions and use their creativity to their advantage with a different mindset.