Death & Dying, Humor, Canada, Native North & South Americans 

Their scientific name is Aurora Borealis. We call them Aqsalijaat, "The trail of those playing soccer", on Baffin Island, they are known simply as Aqsarniit, "Soccer Trails". They like to come out when the sky is crisp and clear and the stars are twinkling brightly in the heavens. Sometimes they are a milky while colour, sometimes they are all the colours of the rainbow. Scientists have their theories about them but we think our explanation is much better.

Soccer is a traditional game of the Inuit. In early winter, the sea ice becomes a giant playing field, flat and smooth. It stretches for miles and miles. Since the days become shorter and shorter as you move farther north in winter, we like to play at night when the stars are out ad the moon is bright. It is our belief that the souls of the dead like to indulge in the lively game of soccer as they did when they were living. They run all over the sky chasing a walrus head that they use for a soccer ball. And that is what the northern lights are.

Our loved ones die; my grandparents died when I was a little boy, my father died in 1973. It is great consolation to go out on a clear moonlit night and watch them enjoying a game of soccer. Life is wonderful.