Lapland
Lapland is home to the Sami people, as well as many reindeers - where they outnumber people 10 to 1. Here you can see the Northern Lights in Winter, and enjoy 70 consecutive days of sun in the Summer.
Santa
You can visit Santa where he lives in the city of Rovaniemi in the Arctic Circle. You have the chance to feed reindeers, eat treats and talk to him.
This link leads to a video explaining the best of Lapland by Santa Claus himself.
'THE BEST OF LAPLAND ACCORDING TO SANTA
In an exclusive interview, the one and only Santa Claus reveals why Finnish Lapland is and will always be the best place for his headquarters.
The remote wilderness of Korvatunturi fell might not be the ideal place for running a worldwide gift delivery service, but for Santa, natural beauty is more important than logistics.'
Places To Go
There are different places to visit in Lapland, and they are mentioned on the Visit Finland website:
You can practice lassooing reindeers, learn their way of cooking, watch reindeer races or take part in the Sami witch drum ritual, to bring you closer to the spirits. Inari is their local village, and there is a museum there which explains their culture and history.
You can also hike to Kilpisjarvi where there is a place called Saana (pictured below) which supposedly has 'gateways to the spiritual world'.
I found an article on Sami people and it says:
Five things you didn’t know about Sami People:
1. They are Europe’s last remaining nomadic tribe and are classified as aboriginal people.
2. There are 75,000 Sami inhabiting a vast area across Norway, Sweden, Finland and even into Russia
3. They have 400 different words for reindeer according to gender, age, colour and shape
4. Their main livlihood is reindeer herding. Only people of Sami descent can legally own reindeer.
5. They believe everything has a ‘spirit’, including animals, mountains, rocks and plants.
Snow HotelThe Hotel Kakslauttanen offers snow globes or igloos for you to look up at the Northern Lights, as they usually appear around Midnight. Situated in Lapland, it is near the Urho Kekkonen National Park, which has great scenery. In the Snow Village there is a Snow Hotel, a Snow Chapel, Ice Bar, snow sauna, art gallery, restaurants, ice sculptures and snow mazes for kids.
There is also a Snow Castle, built each year, and is made entirely of ice and snow, with various buildings inside and ice sculptures dotted around.
Weather
The Weather has stark contrasts in Lapland, with what they call eight seasons. During the Winter there is no sun, and the Lappish live in pure darkness. However, they have a short two month Summer where the Sun never goes down.
Northern Lights
The Aurora Borealis can be seen over 200 nights a year in Lapland, with the further North you travel, the better the chances of seeing them. It's best to see them in darkness away from superficial lighting, so in remote places during September and March.
You can even be an Aurora Hunter - someone who hunts the Northern Lights, takes photographs and guides tours.
Scientific Explanation
'WHAT ARE NORTHERN LIGHTS?
The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres. They are known as 'Aurora borealis' in the north and 'Aurora australis' in the south..
Auroral displays appear in many colours although pale green and pink are the most common. Shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have been reported. The lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow.
Auroral displays appear in many colours although pale green and pink are the most common. Shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have been reported. The lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow.
WHAT CAUSES THE NORTHERN LIGHTS?
The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding. The most common auroral color, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 miles above the earth. Rare, all-red auroras are produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of up to 200 miles. Nitrogen produces blue or purplish-red aurora.'
Tips
- Look to the stars. If you notice that the night sky is clear and starry, your chances of seeing the northern lights are good.
- Stay outside. The lights might unexpectedly appear and just as suddenly vanish any time from just after sunset to just before dawn.
- Wrap up warm. It tends to be very chilly on the clear winter nights when the lights are most easily seen.
- Darkness is your friend. Get away from bright lights and buildings. Hilltops and lakeshores make good vantage points.
- Sign up for aurora alerts. On the Finnish Meteorological Institutue's informative Auroras Now! website, you can sign up for free e-mail alerts sent whenever magnetic conditions in the skies over Finland make auroral displays likely.
Aurora Borealis in Finnish Lapland 2011 from Flatlight Films on Vimeo.
Midnight Summer
'70 DAYS WITHOUT SUNSET
Two thirds of all people living in areas graced by the Midnight Sun reside in Finland. In the northernmost parts of Finnish Lapland, the sun stays above the horizon for over 70 consecutive days.
Below the Arctic Circle, the sun pops below the horizon for a few hours at night. This is not to say it gets dark – white nights are a fact throughout the country, and even Helsinki on the southern coast has virtual daylight around the clock.
TOP TEN WAYS TO MAKE USE OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Anything you can do during the day, you’ll be able to do at night – with a special edge, mind you.
- Stay at a cottage. A nocturnal swim and sauna is a definite must under the Midnight Sun. Lakes and sea waters warm up from June onwards.
- Party! Getting out of a dark nightclub at 3 a.m. can be a bit confusing, as it feels more like 3 p.m. You wouldn’t be the first to swap sleep for an afterparty on the beach – in full sunlight, of course.
- Go to a festival. A traditional midsummer party in Seurasaari island in Helsinki, a rock festival in the heart of Lakeland or the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Lapland all share the magic of 24-hour sunlight.
- Go boating. Whether in sailboat or a canoe, gliding on still night-time waters is an incredible experience.
- Go golfing. No worries about crowded courses at 4 a.m!
- Go fishing. They’re at their hungriest at night.
- Go open-air dancing. A decades old tradition, today revived by urban youth. Classic Finnish tango and other retro music are in the centre of these shindigs.
- Go hiking and camping. Keep going as long as your legs can take it. Make sure you set the tent away from direct morning sunlight, or you’ll roast.
- Go wildlife watching. This is where the white night comes especially handy: nocturnal animals, such as owls, wake up to prey but do not have their usual shelter of darkness.
- Go cycling. Scores of beautiful urban, country and coastal routes are there for the exploring, around the clock. The silence and stillness complete the unforgettable pedalling experience.'
Rowing During Midnight Summer
When all the ice has melted, and the Sun is there to stay for two months, it is a tradition to partake in the Sulkava Rowing Race. You have to row in a church boat, which must be made out of road and stick to regulations. Thousands of people participate and it's one of the oldest and largest rowing competitions in Finland. It's four days long, and you can camp on one of the islands overnight.
Midnight Sun (Summer)
Summer in Lapland is bright, the time of the nightless night. Night and day the midnight sun stays above the horizon. For instance, going as far north as Utsjoki, the sun stays above the horizon from mid-May to mid-July – altogether two months. Actual hot weather (>25°C) days are few and far between in Lapland, as the average temperature for the whole of Lapland varies between 10 to 16 degrees Celsius. Before Midsummer frost can occur in many places in Lapland, so July and its last weeks are the warmest times of the summer. Early summer also has very little precipitation, as rain only starts to increase around August.
During times with no snow, Lapland offers meaningful experiences in the nightless night, the rugged beauty of the fell highlands and sparkling clear waters. Nature can be experienced by trekking, cycling and horse riding the terrain, or traversing the waterways by canoeing, white water rafting and fishing. Those who yearn for a bit of culture will be glad to hear that Lapland has a variety of events throughout the summer, such as the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä and the Simerock Concert in Rovaniemi. In the summertime, visitors should be prepared for mosquitoes, especially if your trip heads for the Lappish wilderness in the heart of nature. '
During times with no snow, Lapland offers meaningful experiences in the nightless night, the rugged beauty of the fell highlands and sparkling clear waters. Nature can be experienced by trekking, cycling and horse riding the terrain, or traversing the waterways by canoeing, white water rafting and fishing. Those who yearn for a bit of culture will be glad to hear that Lapland has a variety of events throughout the summer, such as the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä and the Simerock Concert in Rovaniemi. In the summertime, visitors should be prepared for mosquitoes, especially if your trip heads for the Lappish wilderness in the heart of nature. '
The Polar Night is the opposite of the Midnight Sun, which is where there the night lasts for a complete 24 hours. This occurs for the duration of Winter.
Finnish Meteorological Institute
'In winter, the mean temperature remains below 0°C, but warm airflows can raise the daily high above 0°C at times. Winter usually begins in mid-October in Lapland and during November in the rest of Finland, though not until December in the southwestern archipelago. It thus takes about two months for winter to proceed from Lapland to Åland. The sea and large lakes slow down the progress of winter. Winter is the longest season in Finland, lasting for about 100 days in southwestern Finland and 200 days in Lapland.
North of the Arctic Circle, part of winter is the period known as the "polar night", when the sun does not rise above the horizon at all. In the northernmost corner of Finland, the polar night lasts for 51 days. In southern Finland, the shortest day is about 6 hours long.'
Reindeer
As Reindeer outnumber residents 10 to 1 in Lapland, you will be almost certain to see one when you're there.
Reindeer Park
At Salla Reindeer Park you can partake in many activities and learn about the Lappish way of herding reindeer. You can ride in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, feed them, see them in their habitat and even eat a reindeer dish.
There are 200 hectares in the park full of reindeer, situated in the Kaunisharju ridge.
Reindeer Races
This is a popular sport amongst reindeer herders, with the first race being held in around 1950. Here you can partake in a race and drive a reindeer on skis!
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