The colored lights that dance in the sky, changing from shimmering curtains to whirling vortexes dressed in blue, green and red. The shining curtains of light whip back in forth as you stare in awe, witnessing one of wonders of the natural world. These magnificent light shows are known as the Aurora Borealis and Northern Lights in the north and Aurora Australis and Southern Lights in the south. The Aurora Borealis can be seen in areas near magnetic poles located in the North Pole such as Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Siberia. Meanwhile the Aurora Australis can be mainly seen in areas near the South Pole like in Antarctica and can only merely be glimpsed at in Tasmania and New Zealand. The Borealis and Australis actually mirror each other, so whatever is going up in the north, the same can be seen happening in the south. When viewed from near the poles, the auroras appear close enough that you feel you can touch them, but fact of the matter is that they’re actually 65 miles up min the air. The streaks of light can stretch for thousands of miles long despite only being a few dozen feet wide. Named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, they often do look like the colorful rays of sunlight that hit the earth in the early morning but unlike those rays, the auroras are best seen during the night. Behind the auroras there are many stories, myths and scientific wonders that make them just that much more amazing.
Since the very beginning, the people of earth have taken notice to these lights, with each civilization coming up with their own unique story on why the auroras exist. Many believed the auroras were the work of magic or presence of an all-powerful god. To the Vikings, these lights were the reflections from the shields of fall...
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...are dazzling colors that illuminate and dance vigorously in the night sky. They appear and vanish in the hush of night. They are the auroras.
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yourself in Northern California. frozen shore of Tule Lake. Now regard what sort of shape. this constellation takes a look. It sits there like a jagged scar.
... in the sky, described as a bright color change to a “sad universal tint of dingy purple” (216).
Underneath this sky sits a quiet village of houses around a church, whose steeple rises above the undulating blue-black mountains in the background. A tree sits in the foreground of this night scene. Flame-like, it reaches almost to
The history of the Cree Indians begins where they live for the most part in Canada, and some share reservations with other tribes in North Dakota. The Cree Indians, an Alogonquian tribe sometimes called Knisteneau, were essentially forest people, though an offshoot, the so-called Plains Cree, were buffalo hunters. The Cree’s first encounter with white people was in 1640, the French Jesuits. The Cree Indians later lost many of their tribe in the 1776 break out of small pox, battles with the Sioux, and a defeat to the Blackfeet in 1870. The Cree lived by hunting, fishing, trapping, and using muskrat as one of their staples. They made sacrifices to the sun; the Great Master of Life (Erdoes, Ortiz 504).
For many years astronomers and people alike have constantly heard about the observations and records of the Chinese and Europeans. No other culture can provide as much information as that gathered by the Chinese and Europeans, but there are many other cultures that observed and recorded the night sky, one of those being the Native Americans. During the last fifteen to twenty years archaeoastronomers have uncovered much concerning the beliefs and records of Native Americans. Unfortunately, the methods of keeping records of astronomical events were not as straight forward as the Chinese and Europeans. The Native Americans had to use what they could to record what they observed. Their records were found on rock and cave drawings, stick notching, beadwork, pictures on animal skins and story telling. One of the few dateable events among the various records of Native Americans was the 1833 appearance of the Leonid meteor shower.
Through the years there has been many ideas to what goes bump in the night. Mysterious, unsolved happenings blamed on the so-called supernatural. There are many myths, legends and lore based on these so called mysterious happenings. Through this research paper I am going to help to explain the biggest threats, conspiracies, and misunderstandings of aforementioned legends, myths, and lore.
of balls of light over the fields at night that have left these circles on
Tidwell, James N. "Folklore in the News." Western Folklore 14 (1955): 213-14. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
So the Moon should have risen big and bright on the night of May 19, but it failed to do so. Not a trace of it. Nor could any stars be seen either. The day had been as dark as midnight over much of New England, and though there were neither gas lights nor electric lights at that early era, there were candles to light the homes. Accustomed as Americans of that time were to the nighttime hours, they had never seen a night so utterly black as this. Those who, for one reason and another, were out and about on the roads of rural America that unusual night, found themselves confronted by a darkness that was no less remarkable than that of the daytime hours had been. Horses, the primary means of transportation, could not see to put one foot in front of the other, and simply refused to move. At various times that evening after the Moon rose, though invisibly, the sky cleared sufficiently to present the dreadful specter of a blood-red disc rising to the zenith of the heavens. This phenomenon especially was noted after midnight had ushered in the 20th of May. Bloody and round, the Moon at least offered some small hope that the darkened heavens were at last beginning to clear. Gradually stars began to appear, and the next morning the Sun, to the immense relief of all, rose at its accustomed time and
Spence, Lewis. Myths and Legends of the North American Indians. London: George G. Harrap & Company, 1914.
Throughout the ages, mankind’s fascination with the unknown has resulted in the beliefs of different theories of magic, sorcery and other supernatural activities. While it is a natural trait for humans to be curious of what they do not know, there is something to be said for the mass conviction in these paranormal topics. It’s a mystery in itself how groups of people of all ethnicities and nationalities can have the same beliefs and interest in these topics. From witchcraft to UFO’s, it can be seen all throughout history that humans have been attracted to the unexplained.
~Nave, Carl R. "Apollo Moon Exploration." Apollo Moon Exploration. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
When I was young and saw the picture like the figure1, I think it was not real. It cannot happen in the earth. Maybe someone did Photoshop to edit and retouch the colorful colors in that picture. However, it is a natural phenomenon that happened in the earth 's atmosphere. Galileo Galilei named this phenomenon as "Aurora Borealis." I have three areas of information about auroras to advise you: what aurora borealis is, where the aurora borealis typically seen is, and comparison and contrast this information with Witch Child.
One thing us as humans have never been able to fully understand is astronomy. Always having an unexplained mystery, astronomy also has served as a way to keep time and predict the future. The word “astronomy” is defined as the study of heavenly bodies, meaning anything in the sky such as stars, galaxies, comets, planets, nebulae, and so on. Many people, if not everyone, is amazed by the night sky on a clear, moonless night.
"Myths Encyclopedia - Myths and legends of the world." Hinduism and Mythology. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.