It’s that time of year again. December. Christmas, festivities, lights, holidays and of course, in Iceland’s case: perpetual darkness.
The Month of Lights in Iceland
If you’re here for the first time during Christmas, there are bound to be countless things that surprise you. For starters, it gets bright around 10:30 in the morning. It’s sometimes a little bit annoying, but you get used to it. Then it gets dark around 15:30, so daylight is limited, and as a result, you want to get the most out of it. Get out of town, see nature, and experience something incredible!
Due to all this darkness, we put up lights. Loads of them. This creates a very romantic feel to the city when you’re strolling around in the morning or late afternoon.
Then there’s the end of December, New Year’s Eve in particular. This thing is a complete beast to visitors generally. Basically it goes like this: During the days 27th till 31st every single Icelanders goes to special “pop-up” shops, in most cases operated by the Iceland Search and Rescue volunteers
These pop-up shops sell fireworks, actual explosives that can be massively dangerous in the wrong hands, but also produce some pretty stunning sound and visual effects to the never ending awe of the Icelandic nation. Then aforementioned every Icelander lights these up on New Year’s Eve in their backyards, around midnight, creating a carpet of lights in the sky, lasting for hours.
So if you’re here in December, I hope you see some Northern Lights, and if not, some firework lights, and if still not, at least some Christmas lights, making December a true month of lights!
Check out the December 2014 issue here.
