![]() Up until the Enlightenment, the northern lights were viewed with fear or reverence and were associated with the concepts of heaven and hell.Īncient cultures were more in tune with the magical aspects of life they appreciated the wonders of the world and made up stories about them so that they could understand and hold onto them after they’d gone. The Eskimos of North America believed that if you whistled at the aurora it would sweep down and take you from the earth by clapping your hands you could force it to retreat. The Sámi believed that the northern lights had supernatural powers to resolve conflicts. Popular belief in Scandinavia linked the aurora to dead women, especially to dead virgins. Some cultures regarded the sighting of the aurora as the precursor for war or a sign of the spirits of the dead. Also in China, the aurora was believed to predict forthcoming births. Some experts think the early dragon legends of China and Europe originated from the aurora. In ancient times, there were many legends, myths, and superstitions to explain the lights. Those particles interact with Earth’s magnetic field–producing the light shows.” This explanation led me to wonder what sunspots were exactly: “Dark spots, some as large as 50,000 miles in diameter, (that) move across the surface of the sun, contracting and expanding as they go.” Scientists are not exactly sure what forms sunspots, though there are theories. According to what I read later, when confirming what we had actually seen, the northern lights are “caused by electrically charged particles emitted from the sun during periods of high sunspot activity. ![]() In my seven years in Minnesota I had not seen the lights, even when I escaped the city and waited around like a fool in the dark countryside, my neck bent backward and my chest full of the sinking feeling Linus must feel during a night in the pumpkin patch. I’d heard of the aurora borealis as a kid growing up in sun-blinded Southern California, but it had always sounded like a thing of legend–like reindeer and jingle bells and seven-foot snowdrifts and black ice. She said she didn’t know but grabbed her jacket and followed me to the backyard where we watched sky for a good half-hour or so, dazzled by the flickering fingers of green light. “Are those the northern lights?” I asked. Fascinated, I pulled over to the curb for a moment in order to watch the light show more closely, and I found it only passingly odd that no one else seemed to notice what was going on.Īt my friend’s house, I stood on the porch and pointed to the sky. While I’m not particularly sure why I was looking up when I should have been paying attention to the road, I figure sometimes it’s best not to question such things. ![]() 1Ī few weeks ago, as I was driving to a friend’s house, I noticed a strange greenish glow in the post-dusk northern sky. At the hinge of the year, Michael Fallon thinks macrocosmically.
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