Northern lights

Go on a Northern Lights tour and get a magical experience!

One of the best places in the world, for the Northern Lights, is Greenland during winter. Winter is amazing where you also could go snowmobiling, dogsledding, snowshoeing, hiking, going on boat tours, etc.

I took the picture above at the center of Nuuk, with my iPhone. 

The northern lights are called in Latin Aurora Borealis and can be seen in the winter months in the northern part of the globe, in the southern part of the globe they are called southern lights and Aurora Australis.

These lights come from cosmetic rays, a stream of protons and electrons sent from the sun through the solar wind, and create light as they are captured by the earth’s magnetic field. With increased solar activity the light increases and can be in more colors than “just” green. They enter the atmosphere like a belt, around the north pole and the south pole, and are there all the time, but you can only see them when there are a clear sky and darkness. 

From space, you can actually see the Northern Lights ringing around the earth’s poles. It is not only on our planet that you can see northern and southern lights. They are also found on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus.

In Greenland, the Northern Lights are called “Arsarnerit” and mean “those who play ball.” As children, we were told these myths that when the Northern Lights appeared, it was actually our ancestors playing ball in the sky with a walrus skull. We were also told that if we whistled after the Northern Lights, they could come down and grab our head, and use it as the ball! but I think most of us have tried to whistle at them and nothing has happened 😉

The northern lights can appear anytime during the dark evening if it´s a clear sky. So an evening walk with my sister’s dog can be from going out to get some fresh air and get my 15.000 steps done for the day, to become the most magical evening walk ever! Even I, who grew up in Greenland can get amazed when our sky starts dancing with green and purple colors. 

Guests from around the world travel very far to experience this. Once it’s there above you, you completely forget everything around and can do nothing but look up at the beautiful sky.

If you are going hunting for the northern lights, remember to dress well in warm clothing so you can stay out and enjoy it for as long as possible. 

Read more travel blogs from Laali Berthelsen