Wed
6 Mar
2019

Spits­ber­gen was under full con­trol of the polar night just a few weeks ago, but now the light is retur­ning with full force. The sun is get­ting hig­her up on the sky every day, and around mid-day, the migh­ty Hiorth­fjel­let is alre­a­dy ful­ly expo­sed to the sun.

The return of the sun is cele­bra­ted for one week in Lon­gye­ar­by­en with the tra­di­tio­nal “Sol­fest­u­ke” (sun fes­ti­val week) with a ran­ge of events. The first one was a fire­work on the night sky 🙂

Nor­t­hern light in Advent­da­len.

The sun, hers­elf obvious­ly not visi­ble, had cle­ar­ly in pret­ty good mood, let­ting off steam towards us out here in space. The who­le spec­ta­cle las­ted for a while, so we could chan­ge poso­ti­on and per­spec­ti­ve.

Nor­t­hern light abo­ve Sar­ko­fa­gen south of Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

The “Spits­ber­gen­re­vye” is the tra­di­tio­nal ope­ner of the Sol­fest­u­ke. The revye brings events and peo­p­le on the sce­ne of old Huset in Lon­gye­ar­by­en which have moved peo­p­le here in one or ano­ther way in the year that has pas­sed. Sati­re, humour and music are defi­ni­te­ly part of the event. Good fun, espe­ci­al­ly if you under­stand Nor­we­gi­an with a nor­t­hern colou­ra­ti­on and you have done your home­work and fol­lo­wed Sval­bard­pos­ten (or this blog!).

Spits­ber­gen­re­vye in Huset. Sun fes­ti­val week, Lon­gye­ar­by­en.
Polar bears and coal mining are always part of the show.

Ano­ther tra­di­tio­nal part of the Sun fes­ti­val week is a church ser­vice – out­doors at Tel­el­in­ken on the slo­pe of Hiorth­fjel­let, whe­re you see the sun ear­lier than in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Wea­ther per­mit­ting, that is. And it was clear and sun­ny! But cold … below -20 degrees cen­ti­gra­de, and win­dy. Cold.

Open air church ser­vice at Tel­el­in­ken (I). Sun fes­ti­val week, Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Open air church ser­vice at Tel­el­in­ken (I). Sun fes­ti­val week, Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

In Lon­gye­ar­by­en, the sun will shi­ne “offi­ci­al­ly” again on 08 March. Prac­ti­cal­ly, it is actual­ly a bit ear­lier as you can see on the next pho­to.

Sval­bard Snøs­ku­te­rut­leie in the sun – on 05 March.

The sun was shi­ning on Sval­bard Snøs­ku­te­rut­leie, lower­most in Lon­gye­ar­by­en near Advent­fjord and Advent­da­len, on Tues­day, 05 March!

Nevert­hel­ess, 08 March is the cor­rect date for historical/traditional reasons (unless it is a leap year). The lower­most part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en, whe­re the sun is shi­ning a few days ear­lier, did not exist back then. As soon as the sun is seen from in Skjæringa, the oldest part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en whe­re among­st others Sval­bard Kir­ke (the church) is loca­ted, it is time to cele­bra­te – that will be on Fri­day!