Residents argue that as the sun doesn't rise in the winter and doesn't set in the summer, they should be able to "do what we want, when we want" during the night-less months.
ADVERTISEMENTThe residents of a small Norwegian island are hoping to beat the clock and make up for the winter month's lost time by just doing away with the concept of time altogether.
Some of the 350 residents on Sommarøy — west of the city Tromsø and north of the Arctic Circle — have been campaigning for their island to become the world's first time-free zone.
They are calling for business hours to be abolished on the island with residents allowed to "do what we want, when we want" because their relationship with time is different than elsewhere.
The island spends two whole months in complete darkness over the winter, while they get 24-hour daylight during the summer — the sun hasn't set on Sommarøy since May 18 and is not scheduled to so so until July 26.
"How can you guess time in summer when there is no night? Well, this is exactly the reason why we are doing this!," they wrote on the Time-Free Zone Facebook page.
"Here, in Time-Free zone Sommarøy we enjoy every minute of the Midnight sun and yes, a coffee with friends on the beach at 2 AM is a normal thing," they went on.
The campaign handed a petition to their local MP, Kent Gudmundsen, last week.
The European Parliament voted in March to stop the clock change extending daylight-hours in the summer — although member states now have to decide between making summer time or winter time permanent — and Norway is considering doing the same.
Gudmundsen told the iTromso newspaper, as cited b the DPA news agency, that the time-free zone idea "sounds exciting" and that instead of looking at summer and winter time, the government should perhaps consider the campaign "as a third option".
Visitors to the island, meanwhile have embraced the idea, with some even leaving their watches on the bridge leading to the island, in the same manners lovers around the world have left padlocks on bridges.