November, 2017
The sun set this week in north Sweden, and the next sunrise will be visible only in the next calendar year. During that first day, in early January, the sunlight will last less than 45 minutes, and about 10 precious minutes of light will be added each day. Until then, in the polar nights of December, the children will go to school and return from it in the dark, just as their parents will go to and from work. The playground games and sports competitions will take place under artificial light, and streetlamps will be lit around the clock. Thousands of candles will light dinner tables.

The Arctic winter perhaps sounds cruel and depressing, but from the point of view of Inuits in Canada, Greenland and Alaska, the Sami people of the Nordic countries and residents of the cities of northern Russia, the shortening days and low temperatures are a natural part of the annual cycle. The weather may influence the mood, but in contrast to what some may assume, suicide rates in northern countries are far from being the highest in the world. “Why do those who live in the south talk all the time about winter depression?” an acquaintance living hundreds of kilometers north of Stockholm asked me. “Those who live in the south perhaps feel differently, but people here wait for the winter and are happy during it.”