Lake Paasselka in Finland: photo, description, myths, history

There is an inexplicably mysterious phenomenon in different parts of the planet – wandering night lights, which, like large fireflies, put those watching them into a stupor, confusing people and astray. Mysterious lights outwardly resemble sometimes balls, sometimes cones, similar to a candle flame. Greenish, yellow, blue, ghostly phosphorescent glows are found in swamps, cemeteries, and shallow reservoirs. The inhabitants of marshy places have long been afraid to walk near the marshes at night, so as not to see strange lights, which the Slavs consider to be the tricks of Satan, luring people into the swamp. It was the appearance of the lights that gave rise to everyone's horror of being at the cemetery at night, so they bypassed it on the tenth road so as not to meet the souls of the dead. (The Slavs were sure: the lights in the cemetery are the souls of the dead coming out of the graves.)

Legends and reality

But even today, wandering lights continue to excite the imagination and frighten a person, although many versions of their origin have already been put forward: a cluster of fireflies in one place; spontaneous combustion of gas accumulating in the process of decay of organic matter; more modern assumptions explain them as radioactive fallout.

Many rumors, beliefs and very real stories are associated with the flickering of strange night lights in different areas and countries. Here are some of them. In 1940, in one of the Australian districts near Alexandria station, a driver driving past a cemetery noticed a luminous ball above it, shaped like a watermelon, which began to approach him. Terrified, the man turned around and rushed off in the opposite direction, but a suspicious ball glow pursued his car for some time.

The same shock was experienced by two police officers who found themselves on an empty highway near Marylind, who were also accompanied for some time by a shimmering ball emitting yellow light. Light ghosts sometimes appear on the skins of aircraft when they fly in severe frost or a snowstorm.

In one of the regions of Kazakhstan, two young geologists got out of the car at night in search of a road, went to the glowing lights and disappeared. Their bodies were found a few days later; it was found that they died from dehydration under the scorching sun of the Turgai semi-desert. How young, strong guys could find themselves far from the roads, in a difficult place – this question tormented everyone for a long time. Many believed that the mysterious fires were to blame, which led the guys to disastrous places from where they could not get out, fell asleep from exhaustion and died in a dream from overheating. Until now, glowing lights on the Finnish lake Paaselka remain mysteries.

Saint Elmo's fire

Since ancient times, the inhabitants of the Finnish villages of Joensuu and Savonllinna have known that flickering lights in the form of luminous balls and ellipses appear from time to time on a nearby lake at a small height above the water. They are popularly called the “fires of St. Elmo”, who is mistaken for the patron saint of sailors in the Catholic faith, because, according to eyewitnesses, they (the lights), appearing on the masts of ships, have repeatedly saved ships from shipwrecks. According to observations, spots of a light mirage appear most often on the lake during a thunderstorm, flashing in flashes at a height of 1.5-2 meters from the surface.

How the lake was formed

According to geological data, the oval-shaped lake was formed as a result of one of the volcanic transformations of the earth's crust 229 million years ago, which contributed to the emergence of magnetic anomalies. Scientists assure that the glow that sometimes appears above the lake is the result of these anomalies in the place of the former volcano crater flooded by the lake. As proof of its (lake) volcanic origin, scientists cite the fact of the extraordinary depth of the reservoir, reaching in some places 75 meters. Other researchers argue that the appearance of light formations is the result of an optical illusion arising from the refraction of rays in a certain focus like a mirage.

But modern people, ordinary people who want to believe in miracles, interpret wandering lights in their own way: some believe that they indicate the places of treasures in the lake; others – that the luminous spots are the souls of the drowned, and still others – that the fires lure a person into the depths in order to drown. In this regard, they talk about cases when three teenagers who dared to swim closer to the lights on a boat did not return, drowning in an insidious lake. No one knows for sure whether this is true or fiction, but the veil of some mystery does not leave the neighborhood of Paasselka.

Finland, beckoning to itself with unusually clean nature: transparent lakes, coniferous forests, ski slopes, the home of the Finnish Santa Claus – Joulupukki – also attracts with a mysterious lake. Excursions to it take place quite often and there are many who wish: everyone is interested in the mysterious phenomena of amazing ghosts of light.

Recommended reading What to see in Finland.