Today is the first day of summer in Iceland, – a holiday celebrated every year on the first Thursday after the 18th of April. Iceland is the only country that has a special holiday to celebrate the coming of summer. It is part of an Icelandic folklore. In olden days there were only two seasons, equally long, summer and winter.  In this respect the first day of summer was actually new years day.

The folklore says that if there is frost the night before the first of summer the summer will be good. Tonight the temperatures went slightly below zero and there was frost on the ground. The sun rises at 5:30 now and the sun is shining so it seems we will be having a nice warm day. According to the folklore the summer should be a good one.