Happy Summer!
21.04.2023
Lestrar 66
Photos from the Botanical gardens in Akureyri taken by Oksana Chychkanova
Today is the First Day of Summer in Iceland which is a public holiday and an Icelandic flag day.
This is a strange fact, given the climate in Iceland and that it does not always feel like summer at this time of year 
.
This is though an old tradition related to the time of settlement and the old Norse calendar that divided the year into only two seasons, winter and summer.
.This is though an old tradition related to the time of settlement and the old Norse calendar that divided the year into only two seasons, winter and summer.
This day is normally celebrated with various events and by giving children a “summer gift”. In former times children were given food as the need to ration food over the winter was ending. The gift was seen as a way of rewarding the children for having had to endure the long winter.
Today, the summer gifts are normally new clothes, or something that can be played with outdoors, a welcome incentive to get out of the house after the harshness of winter.
Photos from the Botanical gardens in Akureyri taken by Oksana Chychkanova
