Even on such a breezy summer day, the Finns want to be outside, enjoying the "bright time," the five weeks in the summer when it never really gets dark. If they have a name for the seven corresponding weeks in the winter when it never gets light, Eero didn't tell us, although he did admit that it can be hard to get up and go to work when the snow is deep and it's twenty degrees below zero and it's going to be dark all day. (You think?)
Clearly those conditions create the mindset where sitting in a 200 degree room while beating oneself with birch branches, followed by a bracing roll in the snow, seems like a pleasant way to pass the time.
The dark weeks of winter is called kaamos.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I find it fascinating -- we're so wedded to the 24-hour clock, even when the planet provides a day and a night that last for weeks. And we still must stick to the schedule, even when Earth tells us sleep, sleep.
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