An island where the summer days never end ever and where time is not counted, this leaves dreamer… It is more or less the reality that is lived every year the inhabitants of the northernmost parts of the globe: constantly in the sun during the summer, immersed in a night seemingly without end in the winter. In Norway, the citizens of the town of Sommarøy, an island in the north of the country, had the idea to endorse formally what they live everyday, in a militant simply for the creation of a space without time zone, reports the website of local information iTromso. This initiative iconoclast is a world first. And what better time than the summer solstice of the northern hemisphere, on June 21st, to celebrate the willingness to “let them rule by the light and nature” rather than by the clock?
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it Is located north of the arctic circle, Sommarøy – which means “Island of summer” – enjoys sunshine standing 69 days in the year, may 18 to July 26. Several islanders on the 321 residents of the locality gathered on the 13th of June last, to wear their campaign under the slogan Sommarøy: let s stop time (“Sommarøy: let’s stop the time”). The opportunity to sign a petition which was then handed to a member of the Norwegian parliament. “There are constantly the light of day and we act according to it,” says Kjell Ove Hveding, an inhabitant of the island and initiator of the project, in a press release. “In the middle of the night, when the inhabitants of the city call may be ‘two o’clock in the morning’, you can see children who play football, people who paint their house, mow their lawn, or teenagers who bathe,” he continued.
After the summer, winter
Wishing to no longer be dependent on the opening hours of traditional inhabitants also wish to introduce flexibility in work schedules and school. “For many of us, writing this would just formalize something that we practice since generations,” argues the activist. Fishing and tourism are the main economic activities of the island, nobody cares about neither the time nor the calendar to go out to sea or walk around, ” adds Kjell Ove Hveding.
The island of Sommarøy would thus become the first territory to be free of the needles of the clock and to the establishment of a society free of any time constraint. For the summer period, at least. The question will arise also for the winter, but in a second time”, says Kjell Ove Hveding. “It is important to know that we have the time to live”, a philosopher-t-it. “I think that there will be incredibly positive you no longer have to think about what time it is. In the long term, this will certainly help to reduce absences due to illness and make us live in better health.”
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The island of 0.34 km2 and is only accessible by a bridge, where you can now see hanging on the railings of the watches of the inhabitants, a symbol of their fight against time.
