Wishing Upon a Star: An Exploration
Late one evening, I was walking along the beach promenade. The waves were crashing against the shore, loud in the stillness of the night, and the sliver of silver moon hung among the scattering of stars, when a ball of blinding white-blue streaked across the sky. A meteor!
Meteors, also known as shooting stars, have been associated with various myths, legends, and folklore throughout history and even featured as the premise behind Neil Gaiman’s 1997 fantasy novel Stardust. Like many people in the UK, my first instinct when I saw the shooting star was to make a wish and it got me thinking. What was the origin of this particular folklore? Does it date as far back as the fairy mounds and hill elves that featured in Anglo-Saxon literature? Does it go back even further? Or is it a more recent tradition?
Meteors are natural phenomena that can be seen from just about anywhere, so long as the sky is sufficiently clear and dark, and detailed records of astronomical events can be found in historical texts from a variety of cultures across the world. Despite being known as shooting stars, they are far from it. They are essentially small pieces of debris, typically rock or ice, ranging from the size of a speck of dust to a fist. The larger the debris, the faster it moves, resulting in a streak due to kinetic energy.[1] The kinetic energy an object carries is proportional to its mass multiplied by its velocity squared, meaning that when that tiny debris enters our atmosphere—typically travelling in excess of 20 km/second—it carries vast amounts of energy, causing aerodynamic heating which we see as a streak of light.[2]
The Ancient Greeks and Romans saw comets, meteors, and meteor showers as omens, both good and bad. Additionally, records from China, Korea, and Japan have all been found to contain detailed accounts of meteor showers throughout history.[3] In fact, these sources have managed to pinpoint the first recorded observation of the Perseid meteor shower as a specific event in Han Chinese records from 36 AD.[4]
Based on common legends between various cultures around the globe, scholars speculate that there has been a long association between meteor sightings and superstitious or fated actions. For example, in Chile a shooting star is typically considered a good omen—in order to guarantee yourself luck, you must quickly pick up a stone when it is spotted. Likewise, in the Philippines, legend tells us that a knot must be tied in a handkerchief before it disappears, to capture the good luck.[5]
It is believed that the tradition of wishing upon a shooting star originated in Greece between 127-151 AD. This is based upon Ptolemy’s writings, according to which the gods occasionally grew curious and opened the heavens to see what the mortals were doing on Earth, occasionally releasing a star. He opined that if someone were to make a wish while there was still light, the gods might be able to hear and grant their wish.
Some of the most popular meteor showers are the Leonids, Geminids, and Perseids. At the peak of the Perseids, an average of 60 to 100 meteors may be seen in an hour, making them widely sought after by astronomers and stargazers alike. They occur yearly between 12 July - 24 August, and in 2020 they will peak between 12 – 13 August, where it is predicted that up to 150 meteors will be visible.[6]
So, make sure to find a secluded viewing spot away from city lights, lie on the ground and look up in the direction of the radiant for your location, and once the stars start to fall make a wish. And you never know, it might come true.
Article tags: | -ism | folklore | astronomy |
Make sure to find a secluded viewing spot away from city lights, lie on the ground and look up in the direction of the radiant for your location, and once the stars start to fall make a wish. And you never know, it might come true. Image source: Nick Edgington / Bav media
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Sources Cited
[1] Geoffrey Notkin, ‘Meteorite types and classification’ (Geology.com) <https://geology.com/meteorites/meteorite-types-and-classification.shtml> accessed 23 July 2020.
[2] ‘Kéyah Math Project’ (ASU for You) <http://keyah.asu.edu/lessons/MeteorCrater/KM13.html#:~:text=Because%20it%20is%20moving%2C%20the%20meteorite%20has%20an,be%20increasing%20as%20the%20square%20of%20the%20velocity%21> accessed 22 July 2020.
[3] Hong-Jin Yang, Changbom Park and Myeong-Gu Park, ‘Analysis of historical meteor and meteor shower records: Korea, China, and Japan’ (2005) 175 Icarus 215, 216.
[4] ‘Meteor showers to watch out for in 2020, including the Perseids’ (The Telegraph, 23 July 2020) <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/0/meteor-showers-2020-how-watch-see-perseids-uk/> accessed 23 July 2020.
[5] Michelle Jana Chan, ‘Stargazing in Chile: wish upon a star’ (The Telegraph, 7 July 2013) <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/south-america/chile/articles/Stargazing-in-Chile-wish-upon-a-star/> accessed 22 July 2020.
[6] ‘Perseids Meteor Shower 2020’ (timeanddate.com) <https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/perseid.html> accessed 23 July 2020.