We may not be so aware of it, but our usual daily routine is largely determined by the movement of the earth and the alternation of day and night. But what if morning, in the sense in which we experience it, never comes?
This is exactly how the inhabitants of the far north of Norway live in winter. The city of Longyearbyen is the northernmost inhabited place in the world. It is currently dark, which has descended in November, and the sun will not rise until February. Located not far from the North Pole, this city lives in a completely different way that fascinates everyone who visits it.
After seven years, people move
Longyearbyen is the largest settlement and the capital of the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago, which is located between the Scandinavian Peninsula and Greenland. It is located on Spitsbergen, the largest island of the archipelago, and is currently home to between 1,800 and 2,400 people, depending on the source. The population is constantly changing because, according to statistics from Norway, residents spend only seven years there on average. Most are Norwegians and Russians, but people from as many as 53 different countries live in the city!
University students must learn to shoot
According to the Visit Svalbard website, the inhabitants of Longyearbyen believe that they live a completely normal everyday life. However, it is clear to them that it may seem unusual to those who observe them from the outside. Since this area is full of polar bears, for example, it is quite normal for people to carry guns when they leave their homes. At the university, which has about 300 students, everyone must learn to use firearms.
The city has one road for cars, and special roads for snowmobiles, which are the most practical way to get around. As in the old series “Life in the North”, it is quite normal to see a reindeer walking around the streets of the city. Even today, residents take off their shoes when they enter hotels and restaurants, a tradition that dates back to the time when most of them wore the remains of coal from the mines on their shoes. The mining infrastructure is still preserved in the vicinity of the settlement.
There are no burials because the bodies do not decompose from the cold
Of the interesting things related to Longyearbyen, it should be pointed that it is forbidden to die in the city! Dying has been “banned” since 1950, after it was discovered that corpses buried in the local cemetery simply did not decompose due to the cold. Moreover, live samples of the virus that caused the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 have recently been discovered in long-buried bodies. Today, people approaching death in Longyearbyen are airlifted to land for their final days. Besides dying, cats are also forbidden. Namely, Svalbard is the natural habitat of arctic birds, and cats were thought to threaten their survival.
Winter walks with a lamp
Of the four months that “night” lasts, complete dark lasts for about two and a half and people move around the city with lamps. Summer is the season of the “midnight sun” and it doesn’t get dark from May to August. Despite these conditions, residents normally go out, socialize and do not close their houses even in winter, when the average temperature is between -5 and -17 degrees. It is not unusual that after work, wrapped in a scarf, with gloves on their hands, they have a drink with friends outdoors, with a view of the aurora borealis.
Until 1989, Longyearbyen was a town owned by the national mining company, which controlled most of the infrastructure and services. Today, they have a City Council and function democratically, just like the municipalities on the mainland. The town and the island were greatly helped by the opening of Svalbard Longier Airport in 1975, making the islands accessible all year round, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
