A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1469 entries
polar night
Polar night is the period inside the polar circles when the sun does not clear the horizon at all. At the circle it lasts a day; at the pole it runs for six months. It is not darkness for most of that time. Twilight continues for weeks at either end, and the middle of the season at moderate polar latitudes brings a few hours of deep blue light each day, with snow reflecting whatever the moon and stars provide.
Etymology
The English term is a plain compound and translates the equivalent in the northern languages. Its counterpart is the midnight sun. Norwegian has a separate word for the sunless season, and the day the sun returns to a settlement after it is marked locally with a name and, in several towns, an actual celebration on the date it first clears the ridge.