What are Icelanders celebrating?

After very long winter nights, the First Day of Summer is greeted with much celebration in Iceland. It falls on the first Thursday after 18 April, and launches Harpa, the first summer month of the old Norse calendar. The year was split into just two seasons back then - summer and winter - which explains why Sumardagurinn Fyrsti, the First Day of Summer, falls in chilly April. If you put out a dish of water the night before Sumardagurinn Fyrsti and it freezes, it is said that you’ll have a good summer. While still cold, it heralds the arrival of those famously long days with little darkness.
© Matthew Kuhns/Tandem Stills + Motion