Polar night, known in Finnish as kaamos, began in northernmost Finland on Wednesday, and will inch further south day by day.
The sun appeared in Nuorgam, a village of 200 people in the northernmost municipality of Utsjoki, for the last time until early 2022. The next time the sun peeks over the horizon in Utsjoki will be around noon on 17 January after a polar night of 54 days.
As winter progresses, the polar night creeps towards the Arctic Circle.
In Ivalo, the long darkness begins on 1 December, when the sun sinks below the horizon at 12:22. After a polar night of 40 days, the sun will reappear in Ivalo at 12:02 on 9 January.
In Sodankylä, the kaamos period is considerably shorter, from 13 December to the 29th.
The border of polar night runs a degree north of the Arctic Circle, or about 67.3 degrees north latitude. That is in Aska in the municipality of Sodankylä, 114 km north of Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland.