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Contains:  Northern lights
Ball Games, Dennis Lehtonen

Ball Games

Ball Games, Dennis Lehtonen

Ball Games

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Description

The greenlandic word for the northern lights is "arsarnerit" and it is believed that the northern lights were spirits of the dead that were using a walrus skull to play soccer with. If a child is outside at night when the northern lights appear the spirits would take the head of the child and use it as a ball. 

Last night we had some massive northern lights here in Qeqertaq and the group of local kids would join me to photograph them on the shore right in front of the dense pack of icebergs. The kids do know some few English words and they always yell "run, run!" whenever they see me and we have had a few staring contests here as well. It was fun being with them yesterday even though we couldn't really communicate, except that they understood that I would be leaving in a few days. At some point they started whistling at the northern lights and I would do the same and sure enough the northern lights would get bigger and brighter as a result. In fact, it is also believed in some communities that if you whistle at the northern lights the spirits will come and get you. So in the case I'll go missing in near future, you know the reason. 

Qeqertaq, Greenland. An isolated island of 100 people at 70 degrees northern latitude.
December 7th 2023
Bortle 1

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Ball Games, Dennis Lehtonen
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