How do people in Iceland live? JUDY Marymount Secondary School Iceland is one of the most places in Europe and close to the North Pole. At the North Pole, there are six months of darkness from September to March when the sun does not rise above the horizon.
Once the sun appears on March 21, the spring equinox, there is continuous daylight until September 21, the autumn equinox.
However, Iceland is not at the North Pole so it only gets two to three months of continuous daylight a year. It has a dark period from mid-November until the end of January when there is only about three to four hours of daylight per day.
In the past, Icelanders thought of the year as consisting of two parts, summer and winter, and these seasons were thought of in terms of weeks rather than divided into months.
The reason was because the moon was not easily distinguishable when there was continuous daylight, and during winter it often did not appear due to bad weather. An event would be remembered in terms of which week of summer or winter it happened.
There are many festivals throughout the Icelandic year that are still celebrated today.
The Solarkaffi (sun coffee) festival in January or February celebrates the first day the sun reaches a farm or community after the sunless winter with the drinking of coffee.