The fires of the fox

This is a short post for those of you who are interested in aurora borealis. Often times when I'm travelling people ask me about the northern lights, if I've seen them and if it's easy to see them in Finland. Well, the answer to the question is yes I've seen the northern lights, if only three times in my life. See, the problem is, the northern lights usually occur in the night and because I am a good girl, I sleep. When I was living with my parents they never woke me up to see the lights even though there were winters when the lights appeared most nights for weeks. So I've only seen a very weak, fading sort of northern lights and I feel a bit bitter. I spent the best part of my youth huddled up in the disgustingly cold, unpleasant north and didn't even see our trademark northern lights. The strongest ”northern lights” I've seen were during a flight from Bangkok to Helsinki. In some Finnair planes they can demonstrate the phenomenon, even if it doesn't look perfectly natural.

Here's some mythology about the northern lights. People in Eastern Finland believed that a giant firefox, wagging its tail while running in the snow, occasionally hits its tail to a rock or a tree, thus creating the northern lights. Hence the name in Finnish, revontulet, the fires of the fox. Also, some tribes believed women had better avoid seeing the lights and never venture out when the lights appeared as it was believed it would induce bleeding. Some northern tribes also believed that the soldiers who died in the battle still continued to bleed in the heaven. So, there seems to be a connection between blood and aurora borealis, because in addition to being a pale green tinged with blue, the northern lights can also be red.

I don't have a photo of the northern lights, this is a normal sunset

Planning to come to Finland for some northern lights spotting? The best time is either early autumn or late winter. In the summer they cannot be seen because it's too sunny even in the night. They cannot been seen if it's cloudy. In the winter in Lapland it's possible to see the northern lights three nights out of four and the best time is around midnight.

I will not even try to explain how the phenomenon forms because it's totally beyond my abilities. Also, you will find many different myths and legends about aurora borealis online, I've only introduced the ones that I know well.