You will never forget the sight of the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, lighting up the skies over the mountains. It is a magnificently beautiful yet somewhat scary spectacle.
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| Photo: Tomas Utsi |
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Many people consider the Northern Lights to be one of the most beautiful sights to be seen on the planet. The first time you see the drama play out it will take your breath away. During the most colourful Northern Lights, which arrive in separate sub-storms, the entire night sky can be filled with the most unbelievable forms and colours in green, red, blue and violet.
Northern Lights are formed when loaded particles are thrust into the earth’s magnetic field at great speed propelled by solar winds that constantly flow out from the sun. The lights appear when the particles collide with the atoms in the magnetic field.
The Northern Lights are more common nearer the poles because the earth’s magnetic field attracts particles to the poles, where the field is concentrated. They appear through-out the year but, as you would expect, they are easiest to view at their spectacular best under the dark winter season.
There are many imaginative conceptions from days gone by as to how the Northern Lights came about. The Finnish name “revontulet” means fox fires and originates from the fact that according to legend there were fire foxes in Lapland. The Northern Lights were sparks from their fur.
The Inuit in Green-land believed that the lights were the spirits of the dead who seemed to be having a good time, which included passing eternity engaging in various sporting activities.The Inuit’s name for the Northern Lights is “aqsalijaat” which means the steps of those playing football. The ball the spirits used was apparently a walrus skull.
In southern Sweden people thought that the Northern Lights were formed by the Sami people as they ran around the mountains searching for their their reindeer.