Remote Canada Town a Hub for Northern Lights Seekers

YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories - In the subarctic woods of Canada's Northwest Territories, a quiet crowd searches the moonlit sky, a wave of concern creeping into hushed voices. Time is running out.

Then a funnel of greenish light appears in the east, hanging still at first, then rippling like steam in a glass tube. On the opposite horizon, a waving curtain of color spreads above the trees, drawing shouts of glee from the crowd.

"It's so romantic!" a woman shrieks, clasping her partner's hand. Others are busy adjusting their digital cameras.

The Northern Lights have made their appearance, the highlight of the day for a group that has crossed an ocean and endured freezing temperatures to seek them out.

More formally known as aurora borealis, the lights have made the northern mining center of Yellowknife -- population roughly 20,000 -- a travel hub for mostly Japanese tourists eager to take advantage of the town's nearly ideal viewing conditions.

Hideo Nagatani, manager of local operator Aurora Village, says the appeal for the Japanese is simply a cultural love of nature's grandeur.

"It's like during the fall season, many Japanese flock to Quebec and Ontario for the changing of colors on the leaves," he said.

"Where there is something very spectacular, they will travel around the world to really see it."

Caused by the collision of solar-charged protons and electrons with the earth's upper atmosphere, the borealis typically appears as green and red curtains of light that dance across the sky.

Several cultures have their own folklore surrounding the lights. An Algonquin Indian myth held the lights were the souls of ancestors dancing around a fire.

The Japanese fascination with the lights also has its own bit of folklore: that conceiving a child beneath the lights will bring good luck.

One Thursday evening in February, the crowd seemed set for disappointment as clouds obscured the sky. Small snowflakes whirled, sparkling in the occasional camera flash. The temperature was minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit).

"It needs to be colder," says Clayton Abichon, the lone fluent English speaker on staff this evening, referring to the abnormally balmy conditions for a mid-February evening 500 km (300 miles) south of the Arctic circle.

So when about 30 minutes before midnight the sky finally cleared, a rush of humanity bursts from the tents, where many had been taking refuge from the cold.

The display fades at one end the sky and starts at the other, almost moving around the horizon at times, while sled dogs howled in their kennel farther down the frozen lake shore.

The crowd oohed and ahed as it would at a fireworks display, with many lying on their backs on the snowy ground for a better look.

Most will be back the following night, hoping for even colder temperatures and another light show worth crossing an ocean for.

Source: Reuters