It's Summer!

Just Kidding ;) It was still kind of snowing here in Toronto a couple of days ago.

But it's a different story in Iceland. Yeah, I'm actually not even kidding around with you!

You see, in Iceland they celebrate this holiday called Sumardagurinn fyrsti (sorry i can't even begin to help with the pronunciation on this one) which is, according to the old Icelandic calendar, the First Day of Summer.

In April. In fact it is the first Thursday that falls after April 18th. It's one of their 11 flag days AND it's even a public Holiday (yes the first day of summer is a day off of work/school) Kids get gifts, there's a big parade. For the First Day of Summer. That's awesome.

This "old Icelandic calendar" I referred to was brought to the island by it's first settlers back in the 9th Century and it actually split the year into only 2 seasons - summer and winter (works for me!) Because of the long seasons, the first day of a new season was most definitely a reason to celebrate.

Some good news for us all… Old Icelandic folklore states that if the temperature falls below zero (celcius) the night before the first day of summer, then it's going to be a good summer. It fell below zero in both Iceland and right here in Toronto.

You're welcome!

The reason I'm sharing this story…. for one it's hopefully a bit of a pick me up for all my Eastern North Americans who have put up with a lot this past winter (a new friend of mine recently posted a message on facebook that the first person to complain about the heat this summer is getting punched and I'm quite afraid that is going to be me, being that I get all grumpy during the long, hot, humid days of a Toronto summer) and secondly, this is actually when I was supposed to be taking my trip to Iceland. I wanted to take part in this early summer celebration. But that didn't work out, and if I had been on the ball I might have thrown my own Sumardagurinn fyrsti party. I'll still make it to Iceland later this year, and have just as much fun ringing in the New Year.

Happy Summer!