The Midnight Sun and Children
Updated: May 24
In Finland, June is a month without shadows. As Juhannus approaches, the sun refuses to leave. The world stays open, and the children stay up.
Nordic summer asks us to loosen the bedtimes that hold through the dark months. We let children stay up to watch the sun skim the horizon at midnight, just once a year, and a tired morning after is a fair price.
A few things that help
In the North, blackout curtains do not hide the sun. They tell the body the day is closing, even when the sky is still pale. Drawing them is part of the bedtime, as much as the dark.
A late swim in a still lake before bed is a Finnish tradition that works. Cold water quiets the body in a way nothing else does. The day ends in the water.
And if the children are awake at ten in the evening and the light is gold through the trees, go outside. Do not fight the light; these long evenings do not last.
What June actually looks like in a Finnish house
The blackout curtains go up in May and stay up until August. We wear linen to bed, not flannel. The sheets are cooler, the light is forgiving. Suppers move later. A child who used to eat at six now eats at half past seven, sometimes eight. No one is hungry on a schedule anymore.
Bedtime stops being a clock and becomes a feeling. The body knows. A child who has spent the day in the lake, in the forest, on warm stone, that child will fall asleep on the sofa by half past nine, curtain drawn or not. The light is not the enemy. The exhaustion is honest.
We do not enforce or bargain. We let the season do its work, and we trust that August will return the order. Part of our guide to a Nordic summer.
The current Seasonal PlayBook is a companion for exactly this point in the year. View →
