While Ukraine is “melting” from the heat, the polar explorers on Vernadsky have a winter fairy tale: frosty photo

On June 21, the Ukrainian scientific station “Akademik Vernadsky” celebrated the middle of winter – this day in Antarctica is traditionally called Midwinter. On the occasion of the holiday, Oksana Savenko, an employee of the National Antarctic Center, posted yesterday’s photo.

“On the midwinter holiday, we had record snow reserves. It seems that I recently cleared my site, but it was already falling asleep again. But how beautiful and festive!” She writes.

Midwinter, when the Sun passes the summer solstice, has been celebrated in Antarctica for over 100 years (since 1898). It is the main cultural festival on the continent and, along with Antarctica Day, one of the two main Antarctic holidays. From that day on, daylight hours there begin to lengthen, that is, winter is slowly giving way to spring.

In difficult conditions of daily routine work, especially during the polar night, such holidays are an important component of the leisure of polar explorers.

At Vernadskoye, a “baptism” in ice water was previously an obligatory element of the celebration, after which the “novice” received a certificate and the right to be called a real polar explorer. How it happened in 2021 is unknown.

The centerpiece of Midwinter’s celebration is food. Since winter supplies are still limited there, most of the ingredients for this day’s meals are specially stored for several months. On Midwinter, polar explorers from different stations exchange greetings, wish successful research and a trouble-free return home.

Meanwhile, forecasters say that all this week in Ukraine the heat will remain up to 35 ° C, light rain and thunderstorms are also expected.