It's interesting to me how common will o the wisp was in the past, but the concept seems completely forgotten. Of my grandmother's generation and in her town (which was nowhere near a swamp), everyone reported seeing weird lights floating around during their youth to early adulthood. They were always very clear that the lights were not fireflies, which were also common at the time but very distinct. I'm lucky I at least got to witness fireflies in my youth.
Anyways, an interesting nugget is buried in that article. It says that a reason will o the wisp may have been common in the past is because lantern flames may have ignited the gas, which seems like a decent explanation. People use electric light everywhere now.
I guess another issue could be that there's so much ambient lighting from street lights and light being reflected off clouds that it's simply too bright for us to see anything. People back in the day probably experienced a lot more completely black nights.
It's completely possible that will o the wisp will be a completely forgotten phenomenon in a couple more decades, since I don't know anyone under 80 who's reported seeing it, and kids probably don't even know of it now. And it makes me wonder if there are other phenomenons that ancient people were very aware of but no living person has ever seen.
>And it makes me wonder if there are other phenomenons that ancient people were very aware of but no living person has ever seen.
Having grown up in the last century with camping and middle-of-nowhere road trips, I'm amazed by how many people have never seen the Milky Way (not just stars that are part of the Milky Way, but the splotchy stripe across the sky). The trends for light pollution and time spent away from cities suggest that it could become a forgotten experience just like the will o' the wisp.
In the movie Brave (which my kids love), will o the wisps are featured prominently. It was a great nerd dad moment to explain the blue flame / swamp / deep forest connection to methane and peat moss. My wife cared only a little bit but the threenagers had lots of questions.
I've heard fireflies are disappearing because they are sensitive to various human activities. But I live in NYC and somewhat frequently see them all in parks in the summer, even in places as dense as Manhattan.
Also if you go to the Midwest US, they're still everywhere in the summers. I assumed the firefly deaths would be easily explainable by chemicals, but they seemed prevalent over soybean fields (which would be treated with pesticides at some point), not just open (no chemical) pastures.
Source: the sad death chamber of a jam jar of fireflies my youngest collected this year at a family get-together on the family farm. So it's pretty anecdotal, but they were everywhere along the highway as we drove there as well for like 2 whole states.
I’ve seen similar things. Maybe 15 years ago. Light moving through sky almost like an airplane but no nav lights and erratic vector and speed so it couldn’t be a satellite.
* People spending less time outside at night in general these days, bc indoors is where all the gadgets are
* When you do go outside at night, are your eyes going to be as dark-adapted as someone from say 1850 might have been? Shorter walks between brighter places these days could factor in.
* Swamps aren't as common as they used to be; particularly in the early 20th century in the US, swamps were frequently drained to 'improve' the land. Not as much decaying vegetation near at hand.
* Virtually everyone that dies these days is either chemically preserved, or cremated, so not as much decaying flesh in the cemeteries
It's interesting to me how common will o the wisp was in the past, but the concept seems completely forgotten. Of my grandmother's generation and in her town (which was nowhere near a swamp), everyone reported seeing weird lights floating around during their youth to early adulthood. They were always very clear that the lights were not fireflies, which were also common at the time but very distinct. I'm lucky I at least got to witness fireflies in my youth.
Anyways, an interesting nugget is buried in that article. It says that a reason will o the wisp may have been common in the past is because lantern flames may have ignited the gas, which seems like a decent explanation. People use electric light everywhere now.
I guess another issue could be that there's so much ambient lighting from street lights and light being reflected off clouds that it's simply too bright for us to see anything. People back in the day probably experienced a lot more completely black nights.
It's completely possible that will o the wisp will be a completely forgotten phenomenon in a couple more decades, since I don't know anyone under 80 who's reported seeing it, and kids probably don't even know of it now. And it makes me wonder if there are other phenomenons that ancient people were very aware of but no living person has ever seen.
Historically, we have also aggressively removed marsh and swamp ecosystems in favor of agricultural land use.
>And it makes me wonder if there are other phenomenons that ancient people were very aware of but no living person has ever seen.
Having grown up in the last century with camping and middle-of-nowhere road trips, I'm amazed by how many people have never seen the Milky Way (not just stars that are part of the Milky Way, but the splotchy stripe across the sky). The trends for light pollution and time spent away from cities suggest that it could become a forgotten experience just like the will o' the wisp.
In the movie Brave (which my kids love), will o the wisps are featured prominently. It was a great nerd dad moment to explain the blue flame / swamp / deep forest connection to methane and peat moss. My wife cared only a little bit but the threenagers had lots of questions.
I've heard fireflies are disappearing because they are sensitive to various human activities. But I live in NYC and somewhat frequently see them all in parks in the summer, even in places as dense as Manhattan.
Also if you go to the Midwest US, they're still everywhere in the summers. I assumed the firefly deaths would be easily explainable by chemicals, but they seemed prevalent over soybean fields (which would be treated with pesticides at some point), not just open (no chemical) pastures.
Source: the sad death chamber of a jam jar of fireflies my youngest collected this year at a family get-together on the family farm. So it's pretty anecdotal, but they were everywhere along the highway as we drove there as well for like 2 whole states.
I’ve seen similar things. Maybe 15 years ago. Light moving through sky almost like an airplane but no nav lights and erratic vector and speed so it couldn’t be a satellite.
Multiple factors to think about..
* People spending less time outside at night in general these days, bc indoors is where all the gadgets are
* When you do go outside at night, are your eyes going to be as dark-adapted as someone from say 1850 might have been? Shorter walks between brighter places these days could factor in.
* Swamps aren't as common as they used to be; particularly in the early 20th century in the US, swamps were frequently drained to 'improve' the land. Not as much decaying vegetation near at hand.
* Virtually everyone that dies these days is either chemically preserved, or cremated, so not as much decaying flesh in the cemeteries
I first heard of these reading Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus stories. He called them "Wull-er-de-Wust" [1].
[1] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24430/24430-h/24430-h.htm#V
My first introduction was from the first edition D&D Monster Manual.
I first heard of them as a card in Magic The Gathering!
Haha me too. Still remember the card graphic also.
Opeth song for me
Can we reflect on that this article starts with an Italian researcher named Luigi wearing a vacuum to try to suck in ghosts/will-o-the-wisps.
Hmmya hmmhmm hmmhmm hmm hmm...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l_XQoQc24T4
Great catch! Didn’t see that until reading your comment lol.
Oh good, here I was thinking they could only be explained by magic.
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science has advanced so far now that it has invented magic
I'm sure the scientists have at least one green deck