• "The Eskimos of Labrador, Canada, believed the aurora to be the light of torches of spirits illuminating a pathway to heaven for souls of people "who have died an involuntary or violent death," according to Canadian Anthropologist Ernest Hawkes, who published an account in 1916. The Labrador Eskimos believed spirits who lit the torches could be seen in the aurora kicking around a walrus skull in a game like soccer. Hawkes added: "The whistling crackling noise which sometimes accompanies the aurora is the voices of these spirits trying to communicate with the people of the earth. They should always be answered in a whispering voice.'" -Ned Rozell
  
  
• Scandanavian legend says that the aurora is the where the souls of unmarried women spend eternity. The lights come from their fires, from cooking fish, and waving their hands while wearing white gloves.
  
  
• Some Asian cultures, particularly Japanese, believe that the lights bear life-giving qualities. If an attempt is made under the northern lights, a child is surely to be conceived and successful in life; some of these cultures furthermore believe that the child is certain to be a boy.
  
  
• The Lakota Sioux of the Dakotas thought that the lights were the generations of their tribe who were yet to come: they would play in the sky, waiting to be born.
  
  
• The Algonquin Indians of the New England area believe that the aurora is the lights from the fires lit by Nanabozho, creator of the world. These fires were to remind the Algonquin people that their creator was still thinking of them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Photo courtesy of www.uaf.edu