Darkness descends on Iceland for real and in the East the people celebrate. PIC Sopia Louise
T he month of November in Iceland is usually the time when winter stops making fleeting threats of visiting and actually settles down with ice, snow and serious darkness in its wake. Ice, snow and darkness that will prevail for the next four to five months.
Alas, not a particularly pleasant time to visit except to see the Northern lights and quite possibly run into trouble too as icy roads are less than ideal for safety and snow on top will close any road in minutes at certain times.
The big tourist companies would love for you to visit during this time and actively promote this idea with government backing. Which is quite fine. A number of folks love wintertime and darkness and while little can be seen of the stunning Iceland nature there are other things to oohhh and aahhh about in wintertime.
But one would be hard pressed to find anything special going on outside of Reykjavik city during this time. Apart from the East of Iceland where a number of towns and villages have created a winter festival called the Days of Darkness.[blockquote type=”blockquote_line” align=”right”]After all, where else do humans celebrate darkness especially[/blockquote]
The festival takes place over a week or two in seven or eight different villages and it must be said to be rather impressive considering how tiny some of the places in question are. In some cases villages with only a couple of hundred inhabitants.
Now, this festival is not of high enough calibre to entice folks to visit the area especially but it certainly makes for a more enjoyable stay if in the East at the time. The largest towns offer shows and special events over this time while the smaller ones do their best with costume parties and candle-floats.The program differs slightly between years but should appeal to some of you out there. After all, where else do humans celebrate darkness especially? And what does the Church think about such activity…
Sadly there is no website for the event but keep checking in here and we´ll let you know 🙂
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