Sunlight round the clock

It is midsummer now in the Northern Hemisphere, in the countries North of the Tropic of Cancer, that is in Japan, China, Korea, Siberia, in Asia, in the whole of Europe, in North America and Canada.

However, the actual Midsummer Day fell on June 21. On this day, the sun seemed to appear directly overhead the Tropic of Cancer, which is 2,600 km north of the equator.

Do you remember reading about the Vernal Equinox - March 21 - in the March 19 issue of the Junior Observer? There you would have read that on March 21, the sun appears to be directly overhead the equator, and the verticle rays of the sun strike the Earth perpendicularly (at a 90 degree angle). This day, March 21, marks the beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

You would have learnt in your Social Studies or Geography class, that the Earth is divided into two halves or hemispheres by an imaginary line that runs round the middle of the Earth, known as the equator.

After March 21, the sun appears to move northwards. As seen from the Earth's equator, the sun is rising and setting at a point north of the equator. Each day the sun's rising and setting point has moved further north.

In the account of the Vernal Equinox (See March 19 issue), you would have read that the sun passes directly over Sri Lanka from about April 5 to 9. Sri Lanka lies between 5.55 degrees and 9.51 degrees north of the equator. This northward progression continues until the Tropic of Cancer is reached on June 21. The sun has moved 2,600 Km north since March 21. In geographical terms, it is 23.5 degrees north of the equator. The sun doesn't move any further.

June 21 is the Summer Solstice. 'Sol' in Latin is sun, and 'Sistere' is stand still. The ancients believed that the sun paused at this point, on this day, before starting to move South.

As the sun moved North, little by little, each day since March 21, the days got longer and the nights shorter. Now, there are more hours of daylight and the hours of darkness are less. This increase in daylight is very marked as the distance from the equator increases, there is daylight round the clock for weeks, within the Arctic Circle, which is 66.5 degrees north of the equator.

One third of Norway is within the Arctic Circle. So Norway has 'White nights' from mid-May to the end of July during which time the sun doesn't set. So Norway is called the 'Land of the Midnight Sun'.

It is not only in Norway that the sun doesn't set for days in summer. It is the same in all countries in the same latitude. Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Greenland and Alaska are having sunlight round the clock now or a long twilight, before the sun rises again. This is what a Swede has written about his own country. "On midsummer eve, when sunshine lasts round the clock in the far North, and only fades into a blue twilight for a few hours in the South, Sweden is at its most beautiful".

South Sweden has a summer of more than four months, and so has Norway.

Parts of Greenland, which are closer to the North Pole, than Norway is in total darkness for four months, from about October 21. The sun never appears above the horizon until February 21, and for two months, the sun rises earlier and sets later each day. Then, on or about April 21, the sun rises, but doesn't set. For the next four months, it circles the sky once every 24 hours.

Can you imagine living in continuous daylight for four months? No nights, only days until about August 21, when the sun sets. Then onwards, increasing periods of daylight alternate with increasing periods of twilight for two months, until the sun sets again on October 21 and four months of darkness begin.

In countries not so far north like Scotland, England, Denmark, China and Japan, at this time of the year, there is daylight even at 10 p.m.

After weeks and months of darkness, when there was no sunlight at all, or only for a brief half an hour or one hour, the long hours of daylight is a bonus, a gift from Mother Nature.

Midsummer Day is a holiday in Sweden and Finland, and in Iceland a movable holiday in late June. The Summer Solstice is a day for celebrations. Each country has its own celebration.

This is about the celebration in Sweden: "The Mid Summer Eve celebration is an ancient tradition with its roots in prehistoric Summer Solstice festivals. The leaf-clad maypole - perhaps our most familiar national symbol - is a custom going back to ancient Rome, medieval Germany and France. This fertility festival is celebrated with a unique passion in Sweden."

Sumana Saparamadu.

Virtual pet toy is back

Ten years after it first became a global fad, Tamagotchi has found homes again with a new generation of young children.

Sales of the latest version of the small egg-shaped digital pets, which require virtual feeding, cleaning and play several times a day, topped 20 million units worldwide, two years after its launch. Priced at about US$25, each gadget comes with communications capabilities, so that Tamagotchi owners can meet and play games through an infrared sensor.

Japanese toymaker Bandai is hoping a richer world of characters and cautious marketing will give the latest version staying power, unlike the original, which disappeared suddenly after a brief run in the mid-1990s.

"We've always wanted to try to revive the Tamagotchi because the craze ended so fast," said Takeiuchi Hongo, Bandai's 51-year-old chief Tamagotchi officer, admitting that the company was caught off guard when the toy became a phenomenon in the 1990s, particularly among schoolgirls and young women.

What started in 1996 as a simple idea for a portable virtual pet turned into a cultural icon of the digital age.

However, countries like China and the Philippines condemned the toy as anti-social and schools around the world banned them.

Still, Bandai could not keep up with demand. By the time it was able to do so in the late 1990s, the boom was over.

Reuters