Right this moment, we all know that the aurora borealis, generally referred to as the “northern lights,” happens when electrically charged particles from the solar zoom into Earth’s ambiance. The phenomenon is mostly witnessed throughout fall and winter at high-latitude locales, together with Alaska and northern Canada.

However if you witness the lights streaking throughout the sky, reaching a peak of as much as 620 miles, it’s simple to know how so many cultures got here to develop mystical tales about them.

The aurora, with its hanging colours and dance-like actions, appears otherworldly. The lights gave some communities consolation and happiness, whereas others dreaded their reappearance, contemplating them a nasty omen.

15 Myths and Folktales In regards to the Northern Lights

1. After they witnessed the lights, many Inuit, the Arctic’s Indigenous peoples, believed they have been spirits of the lifeless enjoying a sport with a walrus cranium because the “ball.” The Inuit of Nunivak Island within the Bering Sea had their very own flipped tackle this story, believing that it was walrus spirits enjoying with a human cranium.

2. Indigenous Greenlanders believed that the lights have been dancing spirits of kids who had died at start.

3. For Wisconsin’s Fox Native Individuals, the aurora gave them a way of foreboding, representing their slain enemies making ready for revenge.

4. In Alaska, some Inuit teams noticed the lights because the spirits of the animals they’d hunted, particularly beluga whales, seals, salmon and deer.

© Eddy Savage

5. In Norse mythology, the lights have been the spears, armor and helmets of the warrior girls generally known as the Valkyries. They rode on horseback, main fallen troopers to their last resting place at Valhalla.

6. The Inuit of Hudson Bay dreaded the lights, believing they have been the lanterns of demons pursuing misplaced souls.

7. In Finland, a mystical fox was thought to have created the aurora, its bushy tail spraying snow and throwing sparks into the sky.

8. Some Algonquin peoples believed their cultural hero, Nanahbozho, relocated to the far north after he completed creating the Earth. He lit massive fires, which mirrored again to his folks within the type of the northern lights. This allow them to know he was considering of them, even from far-off.

Inuit Inukshuk, churchill, canada, northern lights

Inuit Inukshuk, photographed by Nat Hab Expedition Chief © Eddy Savage

9. In maybe the perfect oxymoron in British folklore, Scottish legend refers back to the lights as “Merry Dancers” engaged in bloody battle.

10. Native Individuals of the Nice Plains thought the sunshine show got here from northern tribes cooking their lifeless enemies in big pots over blazing fires.

11. Inuit in Level Barrow, Alaska’s northernmost spot, believed the aurora was evil. They carried knives to guard themselves from it.

12. In Estonia, one legend mentioned the lights appeared when whales have been enjoying video games. One other mentioned they have been sleighs taking company to a spectacular wedding ceremony feast.

© Eric Rock

© Eric Rock

13. Wisconsin’s Menominee Native Individuals noticed the lights as torches utilized by benevolent giants to spear fish at night time.

14. Fishermen in northern Sweden took the lights as omen, believing they mirrored massive colleges of herring in close by seas.

15. For those who whistled on the aurora, some Native Individuals believed it might sweep down and take you away. Clapping your fingers, nonetheless, would trigger the lights to retreat, holding you protected. In the meantime, in northern Scandinavia, the Sami folks hid indoors through the mild present.

Search for the northern lights and find out about Arctic cultures on Nat Hab’s Northern Lights & Arctic Exploration in Churchill, Manitoba this winter.

By Marsea Nelson, WWF Visitor Blogger