In Awe of the Aurora Borealis
Chances are you’ve heard of the “Northern Lights”.
We in the north have had the good fortune of seeing these beauties once in a while and if you ever have this experience you won’t soon forget it.
One time, my sisters were visiting me from Ontario and I was driving them home from the mountains, another wonderful experience, for two reasons : I was with my wonderful sisters and the Jasper mountains are incredible too.
We were nearing the city and one of my sisters pointed to the sky and shouted, “ What’s THAT?”
I pulled the car over to the side of the highway, we all got out, held hands, and looked up in awe at the amazing light show that God seemed to have gifted us that evening. I think the word, “awesome” is overused these days but that word perfectly captures the spectacle we saw that night.
“The northern lights — also called aurora borealis (say "ah-ROAR-ah bore-ee-AH-lis") — are coloured lights that appear in the northern sky. Kind of like nature's fireworks.
The northern lights are caused by electrons being blown out by the solar wind. Sounds technical, right? Think of it this way: it's like the sun burping out these really small particles (the electrons) into the air. These tiny electrons mix with gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, which makes them glow.
The name "aurora borealis" comes from the French astronomer and scientist Pierre Gassendi. He called it aurora for the Roman goddess of the dawn, and boreas, which is the Greek word for the north wind.”(CBC kids)
There is a lot of mythology that has sprouted from this incredible phenomena ….
In Finland there is a legend about a wee arctic fox that ran so quickly across the snow that his tail caused sparks to fly into the sky causing the Northern Lights. The Finnish word for them is called “ Revontulet “ which literally means “ Fox Fire “.
There are many Indigenous legends about their formation too. Some are about the souls of animals that they hunt, dancing in the sky. Some say it is a path to help souls find their way to Heaven.
The Chinese have a legend that when you see them there is a battle going on between dragons who breathe fire across the sky!
You can see them 200-300 kilometers above the earth...yes, they can be seen from space! They come in many different colours like greens, pinks, purples, reds and blues and they actually make sounds like ‘crackles’ and ‘claps’ if it was quiet enough to hear them.
The photos I’ve included here are from some fantastic , Alberta photographers.
They are in order :
Mark Burden
Paul Zizka
Paul Zizka
Rory Farrell
Sherwin
Steve Mumert
Steve Mumert
Steve Mumert
Yongnan Li
I hope you have the blessing of seeing the night sky like this someday. It is a celestial ‘ceremony’ that can take your breath away.