You weren’t to dance, sing or whistle at them for fear they would feel disrespected and the lights would dip down and carry you off to the afterlife. The Sami – the indigenous people of Sweden – believed the lights were the souls of the dead. Steeped in myth and viewed in awe, these lights have captivated mankind for millennia. The Latin name translates to ‘dawn of the north’, Aurora being the Roman goddess of the dawn. The result is a truly magical sight to behold as the vibrant colours snake across the night sky, dancing around as if moving to some unheard music. The variation in colour depends on the kind of gas particles involved – low-lying oxygen causes the most common green colour, red is produced by oxygen higher in the atmosphere and the blueish-purple hue comes from nitrogen. The Northern Lights are a unique natural phenomenon created when electrically charged particles from the sun collide in the Earth’s atmosphere. What are the Northern Lights, and what causes them? However, the most spectacular display usually takes place around 10:00-11:00 pm. On clear evenings, the best time to see Northern Lights in Sweden is between 6:00 pm and 2:00 am. The long winter nights are welcomed by visitors flocking to witness this incredible light show. The last glimpses of these undulating rainbows can be caught as late as the end of March or even early April. And by the time winter has fully set in around January, the Northern lights can be seen throughout Swedish Lapland – the large expanse of land in the northwest corner of Sweden that covers nearly a quarter of the country. The sky comes alive as streaks of pinks, greens and purples dance high above. The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, appear during the beginning of September in and around Kiruna in the far north of Sweden.
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