🎆 New Year’s Eve in Greenland

New Year’s Eve in Greenland: two midnights, fireworks over the fjord

Why Nuuk sets off fireworks at 21:00 and again at midnight, where to watch them, what Greenlanders eat and do on 31 December, and how to plan a New Year trip to Nuuk or Ilulissat.

🇩🇰 21:00 Denmark’s New Year🇬🇱 00:00 Greenland’s New Year🌌 Aurora possible

⚡ Short answer

Greenland celebrates New Year twice: at 21:00 Nuuk time, when it is midnight in Denmark, and again at local midnight. Both rounds come with fireworks over the town and the fjord. On a clear night you may see the northern lights behind them. The evening itself belongs to family dinners and parties at home.

• First fireworks 🇩🇰 21:00
• Second fireworks 🇬🇱 00:00
• Say 💬 Ukiortaami pilluarit
• Visitor tip 📍 Scout a viewpoint

Find Nuuk’s best viewpoints 📍

At nine in the evening on 31 December, the sky over Nuuk fills with rockets. Three hours later it happens again. Greenland is part of the Danish realm, and many Greenlanders have family, friends and colleagues in Denmark, so the country greets the new year when it arrives in Copenhagen and once more when it arrives at home. In between there is dinner, a lot of cake and, if the sky is clear, a chance of green northern lights above the fireworks. This guide explains the two midnights and the time zones behind them, shows where to watch in Nuuk, covers food and customs, and helps you plan a New Year trip to Greenland, from flights and hotels to the tours that run in the last days of December.

Why does Greenland celebrate New Year twice?

In short: Greenland belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, and Nuuk is three hours behind Copenhagen in winter. When the clocks strike midnight in Denmark, it is 21:00 in Nuuk, and many Greenlanders celebrate with the Danish side of their family before celebrating their own midnight three hours later. Press the clocks to see both.

The three-hour gap is fairly new. Until 2023, Nuuk ran on UTC−3 in winter, four hours behind Denmark, and the first round of fireworks went up at 20:00. In March 2023, most of Greenland moved its clocks forward one hour and kept them there, so Nuuk now sits at UTC−2 in winter and Denmark’s midnight lands at 21:00. Older travel articles that mention 20:00 were written before the change.

The double celebration fits how Greenland lives. Danish TV, Danish relatives and Danish colleagues are part of everyday life in Nuuk, and plenty of people have family on both sides of the Atlantic. Celebrating at 21:00 means a call or a video chat with Copenhagen as the new year arrives there. Celebrating at midnight is for Greenland itself. Many households do both, and the fireworks follow the same rhythm.

Greenland is large enough to have more than one time zone. The change of 2023 applied to most of the country, including Nuuk, Ilulissat, Sisimiut and the towns of the west and south coast. A few places run on other clocks, among them the east coast settlement of Ittoqqortoormiit and the US base at Pituffik in the far north, so their midnight falls at a different hour. If you are travelling outside the west coast, check the local time before New Year’s Eve.

New Year’s Eve in Nuuk, hour by hour

In short: the short daylight ends in mid-afternoon, the Danish King’s New Year speech airs at 15:00 Nuuk time, dinner starts in the early evening, the first fireworks go up at 21:00 and the second at midnight.

Rockets don’t keep strictly to the two midnights. Children start in the afternoon with sparklers and small bangers, and between 21:00 and midnight there are always a few households who can’t wait. The two peaks are still easy to spot, and the midnight one is usually the loudest. Greenland’s Premier gives a New Year speech of their own as well.

Where to watch the fireworks in Nuuk

In short: fireworks go up all over Nuuk, fired by residents, so the best view is from higher ground or the shore, where you can see several neighbourhoods at once. The old colonial harbour and the hills above the city centre are good choices. Scout your spot in daylight.

In Nuuk, New Year’s fireworks are a do-it-yourself affair. People buy their own rockets and batteries in the weeks before New Year and fire them from streets, car parks, balconies and the rocks by the sea. That spreads the show across the whole city, from the old town by the harbour to the apartment blocks of Nuussuaq and Qinngorput. You don’t watch one display; you watch a city lighting up from end to end.

That makes the viewpoint more important than any address. A spot with a wide view over the city and the fjord beats a crowded street, where rockets go up a few metres away. Good options:

• Kolonihavnen, the old colonial harbour: the historic heart of Nuuk, with the red Church of Our Saviour (Nuuk Cathedral), the old houses and the open water. Fireworks from the centre reflect in the sea on calm nights.
• The hill by the Hans Egede statue: a short climb above the old harbour with a view over the old town, the fjord and the city centre.
• The shore path towards Myggedalen: the colourful houses on the rocks make a fine foreground, with less traffic than the centre.
• Higher ground in Nuussuaq or Qinngorput: the newer districts sit on slopes with views back over the city and across the water to Sermitsiaq, the mountain that dominates Nuuk’s skyline.

The safest way to find your viewpoint is to see it in daylight, which in late December means between late morning and mid-afternoon. Icy paths and rocks are much harder to judge in the dark. A guided scenic drive to Nuuk’s viewpoints covers the best lookouts in a few hours and saves you walking around in the cold, and a local guide will tell you where residents go to watch. If you’d rather stay close to your hotel, ask the reception; staff know which corner of the street gives the best view. A harbour hotel such as Hotel Søma Nuuk puts you a few minutes from the old harbour.

Keep a sensible distance from people firing rockets, especially at midnight, when lots go up at once. Wear glasses or goggles if you stand close to the action, keep gloves on, and don’t pick up fireworks that failed to go off. Spent rockets and batteries lie everywhere on New Year’s morning.

Can you see the northern lights on New Year’s Eve?

In short: yes, if the sky is clear and the aurora is active. Nuuk lies close to the auroral zone and the nights are long at New Year, but light from the fireworks and the city makes faint aurora hard to see. Move away from the street lights between the two midnights for the best chance.

Fireworks and northern lights on the same night is the picture every New Year visitor hopes for, and in Greenland it happens. At the end of December, Nuuk is dark from mid-afternoon to late morning, so there are many hours for the aurora to appear. What decides it is cloud cover and solar activity, neither of which follows the calendar. Check the cloud forecast during the day and an aurora forecast app in the evening.

Smoke from the fireworks hangs in the cold, still air after each peak and can cover the sky for a while, and the city is brighter than usual. Your best window is often the quieter stretch between 21:30 and 23:30, a short walk from the centre towards the shore or the hills. Bright aurora shows clearly even over the city; weak aurora needs darkness. Our northern lights guide explains forecasts, camera settings and the best spots around Nuuk.

The weather on 31 December can be anything from still and starry to a full storm. Typical night temperatures in Nuuk range from about −5 to −15 °C, and wind off the fjord makes it feel much colder. Standing outside for half an hour at midnight is colder than a winter walk, because you don’t move. Dress in layers: thermal underwear, a fleece or wool mid-layer, an insulated jacket, a hat that covers your ears, warm gloves with thin liners for working a phone, and boots with a good grip. Our what to wear in Greenland guide has a full winter packing list, and Greenland in winter covers the season as a whole.

How do Greenlanders celebrate New Year’s Eve?

In short: New Year’s Eve is spent with family and friends, at home or at a party. Dinner, cake and coffee, the speeches on TV, the two rounds of fireworks and phone calls across the Atlantic make up the evening. Menus vary from home to home, mixing Danish party food with Greenlandic meat and fish.

Christmas in Greenland is for church and close family. New Year is looser and louder. Friends and relatives gather in each other’s homes, the table fills up early, and doors open as neighbours drop in after the fireworks. In Nuuk, younger people often head out to the city’s bars after midnight. In smaller towns and settlements, the whole community knows each other, and the celebration moves from house to house.

There is no single Greenlandic New Year menu. Many homes follow the Danish pattern, with a festive dinner and a ring cake (kransekage) with champagne at midnight. Others put Greenlandic food on the table: musk ox, reindeer, lamb from South Greenland, halibut, shrimp and dried fish. Coffee and cake come up again and again, as they do at every Greenlandic celebration; our kaffemik page explains the tradition of open-house coffee gatherings.

A few Danish customs travel with the families who keep them. The King’s speech at 18:00 Danish time, 15:00 in Nuuk, is a fixed point in many homes. Some families jump off a chair at the stroke of midnight to “leap” into the new year, and the champagne comes out twice, once for Denmark and once for Greenland. As a guest, you’ll be told what this household does; join in and you’ll be fine.

The season’s decorations stay up through New Year. The lit stars that hang in almost every window from Advent remain until 6 January, so on 31 December the whole town still glows in red and orange. Read more about the stars, the trees and the Christmas food in Greenland at Christmas.

From New Year’s Day to Twelfth Night

1 January is the quietest day of the year in Nuuk. Most shops are closed, many restaurants too, and the city sleeps late. Plan breakfast at your hotel, keep some food in your room, and use the short daylight for a walk along the shore. The streets are often covered in spent fireworks, and the first walkers of the year are out with their dogs.

The holiday season in Greenland lasts until 6 January, Twelfth Night. That evening the window stars come down, and in many towns the old tradition of mitaartut takes place: people dress up in disguise, with masks, padded clothes and odd costumes, and knock on doors, where the hosts try to guess who they are. Children love it, and the masked figures can look properly unsettling in the dark. If you are in Greenland on 6 January, ask locally whether mitaartut is happening where you are staying.

New Year’s Eve in Ilulissat

In short: Ilulissat lies north of the Arctic Circle, so the sun doesn’t rise at all around New Year. Fireworks go up over the Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the middle of the polar night. Package trips with a gala dinner exist and sell out early.

Ilulissat, on Disko Bay about 550 kilometres north of Nuuk, is Greenland’s best-known destination. At New Year it is in the polar night: the sun stays below the horizon from early December until mid-January, and the only daylight is a blue twilight around noon. Icebergs from the Ilulissat Icefjord fill the bay, and fireworks over the ice are a sight you can’t get in Nuuk. The town is smaller, with a few thousand people and many more sled dogs, and the celebration is more intimate.

Danish tour operators sell New Year packages to Ilulissat. Greenland Travel’s eight-day “New Year’s Eve among the Icebergs” trip, for example, flies from Copenhagen, stays at Hotel Arctic and includes a five-course gala dinner; guests go outside for Denmark’s New Year at 21:00 and again at midnight. Optional extras include dog sledding, sailing among the icebergs and a northern lights tour. Trips like this have few seats, so book months ahead.

Ilulissat is colder than Nuuk, darker and further from everything. If you want a first taste of Greenland with tours that run in winter, Nuuk is the easier choice; if you want icebergs and polar night, it’s Ilulissat. Our best time to visit Greenland guide compares the seasons for both.

Planning a New Year trip to Greenland

In short: book flights and hotels early, because Greenlanders living abroad fly home for the holidays. Arrive by 29 December, keep a spare day before your flight home, book tours for 29 and 30 December or 2 January, and plan meals for 31 December and 1 January in advance.

Flights. Nuuk’s new airport, with a runway long enough for transatlantic jets, has made it easier to fly in directly from Copenhagen and, in some seasons, from North America. Around Christmas and New Year, flights fill early: many Greenlanders living in Denmark fly home before Christmas and back after New Year. Winter storms can delay departures by a day or more, so don’t plan a tight connection on 2 or 3 January. Routes and airlines are covered in getting to Nuuk.

Hotels. Nuuk has a small number of hotels, and New Year is high season for some of them. Book as soon as your flights are fixed. Check whether your hotel offers a New Year’s Eve dinner, and reserve it; restaurants in town may be closed or fully booked by families and groups. A hotel with its own restaurant and breakfast saves you from searching for food on 1 January.

Opening hours. Expect supermarkets and shops to close early on 31 December and most of them to stay closed on 1 January. Museums, cafés and tour operators often take the holidays off. The National Museum and the cultural centre Katuaq keep holiday hours; check before you go.

A five-day New Year trip to Nuuk could look like this:

For the wider season, from the Christmas markets to the shortest days, see Greenland in December. For everything the city offers year-round, see things to do in Nuuk.

Tours for a New Year trip to Nuuk

In short: book tours for the days around New Year, not for 31 December or 1 January, when most operators are closed. Indoor and food tours suit the long nights; a scenic drive helps you find a fireworks viewpoint; boat trips run only on calm days. Filter the tours below and check your dates.

The Old Town Walk & Kaffemik is the closest a visitor gets to a Greenlandic family gathering, which is what the New Year holidays are about. The scenic drive is the practical pick for 31 December itself, if the operator runs that day: you see the city in its short daylight and know exactly where to stand at midnight. For the full list of tours, see Greenland tours and tickets.

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Questions about New Year’s Eve in Greenland

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