How Cultures Interpreted the Aurora Through History

Published: 17 November 2025 Monday. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

From creation myths to political omens, humans have long sought to understand the dramatic displays of the Northern Lights. After a Jacobite uprising was quashed in England in 1716, strange lights streaked across the night skies, described by witnesses as “pure flame”, “something resembling the pipes of an organ”, or a “shower of blood”. Observers interpreted them through the lens of their beliefs and loyalties, with some envisioning giants wielding flaming swords or armies battling in the sky. An English clergyman wrote that some people “read, in its glaring visage, the fate of nations, and the fall of kingdoms”.

Today, scientists know that aurorae are caused by solar activity interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. These colorful displays, visible at high latitudes and occasionally further south during strong geomagnetic storms, are now understood in terms of charged particles colliding with the atmosphere. Yet, historical and oral records show that for millennia, humans have explained these lights through mythology, spiritual significance, and even moral teaching.

Some traditions are relics of ancient cosmology. In Norse mythology, Bifröst, the rainbow bridge connecting mortals to the realm of the gods, may have been inspired by the aurora. Written records in Mesopotamia describe similar phenomena. Astronomical diaries from Babylonia in 567 BCE mention a “very red rainbow stretched in the east”, and Assyrian cuneiform tablets from at least a century earlier include references to “red glow”, “red cloud”, and “red sky”, interpreting them as omens for kings and nations. In China, a 3,000-year-old text on bamboo slips, The Bamboo Annals, recorded a “five-coloured” event at night, now considered a possible aurora linked to extreme solar activity in the 10th century BCE. Researchers can cross-reference these accounts with solar and geomagnetic data to distinguish aurorae from other celestial phenomena.

For communities living at high latitudes, such as Iceland, Greenland, northern Scandinavia, Alaska, Canada, and northern Russia, aurorae are a regular feature of life, deeply embedded in cultural worldviews. Indigenous peoples of the Arctic have long integrated spiritual understandings of the Northern Lights with practical knowledge of their environment. For some, the aurora represents ancestors or shamanic powers, and its appearance often carried moral or behavioral guidance.

Among the Sami, the Northern Lights inspired both awe and caution. They were thought to be connected to spirits, and people were warned to remain quiet, not to tease the lights, and for women to cover their hair to avoid being entangled in its rays. Similar stories persist among Indigenous communities in Alaska, where children were told that the aurora could “play football with their heads” as a cautionary tale to encourage them to return home safely.

From ancient China to Northern Europe and the Arctic, the aurora has been a source of wonder, fear, and storytelling. Its ethereal beauty has inspired poetic accounts, spiritual interpretations, and even political omens. Across cultures, the dancing lights of the sky continue to bridge the worlds of science, history, and imagination, reminding us how natural phenomena shape human thought and culture.