Say "Yes"

Couples in the Murmansk Region will be able to register their marriages on Saturdays—even late at night—from November 21 to December 19, TASS reports. Murmansk governor Andrey Chibis announced the initiative.

“Saying ‘yes’ in the polar night under the northern lights—that’s only possible in the Murmansk Region. From November 21 to December 19, couples will be able to get married on Saturdays in the evening and at night,” Chibis wrote on his social media.

The governor added that the idea came from the northerners themselves, and the authorities backed it. The Murmansk registry office will stay open from 9 a.m. to 9 a.m. the next day, while the registry office in Apatity will work until midnight.

The polar night at Murmansk’s latitude lasts from December 2 to January 10, a stretch when the sun never climbs above the horizon and the sky stays dim for most of the day. It is a sleepy season—but it is also the time when the aurora is at its most reliable, and the region is likely betting that the darkness will attract tourists.

For years, the northern lights have drawn tourists from all over the world to the Kola Peninsula, and the pull is not unique to Murmansk. For example, a study of youth migration to Finnish Lapland identified the forces that keep drawing people north:

• An ‘authentic’ lifestyle;
• The ‘freedom to roam’, connection with nature, and many legal ways to interact with the environment;
• The remoteness of the land;
• Wide representation on social media and positive feedback from the public.

Operators in Murmansk and Teriberka have built an entire industry on those instincts, chasing the aurora across frozen lakes and snow-covered tundra. Now the region’s registry offices are betting the same pull can do for weddings what it has already done for hotels and tour buses—and that a midnight ‘yes’ under a green-lit sky is exactly the kind of image that draws people.