Especialidades JA/Sol de medianoche/Respuestas
Nivel de destreza
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Año
2014
Version
17.11.2024
Autoridad de aprobación
Asociación General
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The opposite phenomenon of the midnight sun is the polar night, which occurs in winter when the sun stays below the horizon throughout the day.
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"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." NIV
Key points: God made the world. Evening and Morning makes a day. God rested on the Sabbath and made it holy at Creation.
"32 It is a day of sabbath rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.”"
Key point: Sabbaths (this text refers to The Day of Atonement, ) should be observed from the evening until the next evening. Note this was not clear to early Seventh-day Adventists. Some favored 6 pm to 6 pm while others favored midnight to midnight. They studied the issue out and arrived at the conclusion Sabbath starts a sunset Friday night and runs to sunset Saturday night. This was likely a key text in that study.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."
Key point: The 4th Commandment to keep the 7th day Sabbath holy.
"In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.”
"When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy."
Key point: The Sabbath began when the "evening shadows fell on the gates"
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If you do not live in the polar region, this is going to take a little work. You might look around for people that have lived up North, or try internet chat forums for contacts. Simply calling people (like in a tourist office, park or government office) in Northern areas should work.
For example, the US National Parks Service runs the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, AK Visitor Information 1-907-852-0422
Communities North of the Arctic Circle
The largest European communities north of the Arctic Circle are Murmansk, Russia (population 307,257), Norilsk, Russia (175,365), Tromsø, Norway (71,295), and Bodø, Norway (49,000). Rovaniemi, Finland (60,000) lies slightly south of the line and is the largest settlement in the immediate vicinity of the Arctic Circle.
The largest North American community north of the Arctic Circle is Sisimiut, Greenland with 5,000 inhabitants. Of the Canadian and United States Arctic communities, Barrow, Alaska is the largest settlement with 4,000 inhabitants.
Effects
Among the people of the Arctic, the Norwegians have the easiest climate, with most ports in North Norway remaining ice-free all the year as a result of the Gulf Stream.
Many find it difficult to sleep during the night when the sun is shining. In general, visitors and newcomers are most affected. Some natives are also affected but usually to a lesser degree. The midnight sun is said to cause hypomania, which is characterized by persistent and pervasive elevated or irritable mood.
The midnight sun is also an issue for those who observe religious rules based around the 24 hour day/night cycle.
In the Jewish community there is a body of law which attempts to deal with adherence to the Mitzvah in such conditions.
Another affected religion is Islam, where fasting during daylight hours in Ramadan would imply total abstinence. Also, Muslims have 5 obligatory prayers daily which are timed according to position of the sun, so it becomes difficult for them to decide the prayer times; however, they can follow the timings of the closest place that has a normal sun cycle or the timings of Mecca, the holiest city of Islam.
Seventh-day Adventists observe Sabbath from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday evening. In polar regions if the sun does not set, Sabbath is usually deamed to start and end when the sun reaches its lowest point on the horizon (effectively sunset). This should be around midnight, but varies by where one is in the timezone. Others simply choose an arbitrary time like 6 pm to 6 pm or midnight to midnight.
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