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Splendour in the sky How to watch Effects of Aurora Borealis Beliefs of indigenous people The Northern Lights in HistoryRelated sites
Beliefs on indigenous people |
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means "the sun glowing in the sky in the morning or in the evening," as in aurora, the Latin word for dawn. But this word could also be translated as "the fire lit by a bird, the Siberian Jay". This word |
also refers to audible light, although no scientific proof of audible sound coming from the aurora exists.
Explanations related to the spiritual world show common features all over in the polar regions. The spirits of the dead moved up into the sky and their activities were visible from earth. Inuits in the Hudson Bay area believed that spirits which had encountered a voluntary or violent death, as well as ravens, position themselves above a dangerous path, holding torches to guide the steps of newcomers. This scene becomes visible as the light from the aurora. The Eskimos on the west coast of Greenland believed that the souls of the dead went either into the ground or water or up into the sky. At night, one might see the souls in the sky playing football using the skull of a |
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