Why Nomads Believe in Their Prophesies Explaining Natural Phenomena
What if the esoteric-nomadic theories are true and natural phenomena are not what scientists say?
10 years ago, I worked on the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan. In quite a recent past, Kazakh people used to be nomads. They still practice prophecies on what happens around in nature.
One extremely cold January day, a local guy tells me, “It is so freezing for seals.”
“Sorry? How can the weather be for something? The science answers the question of why and how it is cold not “for what,” I argued.
“I know what the science says, but Caspian seals, our sacred sea mammals, need severe frosts in January. That’s why we call these cold days seal frosts. We always have freezing days at the end of January.”
He paused and then added, “ When seals give birth, their umbilical cord freezes on ice and easily breaks. There’s no bleeding. Both a mom and a pup stay alive. Pups grow up through winter and when the ice melts, they migrate to the South, where the sea is deep, to spend the summer. We have a lot of dead pups and their moms in mild winters.”
“Quite a weird way to speak about the weather,” I thought and looked at the cold weather with respect. Let it be freezing to save Caspian seals.
Later, in April, we had a severe storm. The wind with sand was blowing hard for 4 consecutive days. We couldn’t work and preferred to stay inside.
Local guys call April storms “turtle winds.” Well, what will it be this time? How are we going to save turtles now?
“It always blows that hard in April for turtles,” a local guy said.
“And why would turtles need the wind? Will it make them crawl faster to safety? Like sailboats?”
“No, it’s about their pups again. Turtles lay eggs in the beach sand. If there’s no wind, their pups will not be able to break eggs and climb out through the thick layer of sand. The wind blows top sand layers away, pups break the egg, climb out and run to the sea. If there’s no wind, many of them die”
Kazakhs have many other explanations for why they eat horse meat, why the wormwood is their sacred grass, why they first pour milk, then put a teabag, and only then hot water to make their tea.
Fast-forward to where I am now in the Arctic North. I’ve decided to look at one natural phenomenon from their esoteric perspective.
Have you ever been where the Sun shines for 24 hours a day?
I work on a night shift to the North of the Arctic Circle. The night shift is called so only because it starts after 8 p.m.
In reality, instead of the Moon overhead, we have the Sun day in day out.
Our shifts are 12 working hours. I have my midnight Sun, and my relief has his midday Sun.
It’s nice to have a 24 hours sunny day in this cold environment. But after several days of enjoying it, I had to seal my bedroom window with thick black plastic to imitate normal night darkness to reclaim my good night’s sleep.
Why are there polar days and nights in the North? Here is what the science says.
That sucks. No emotion. It doesn’t touch my heart. But I have another theory based on Kazakh nomadic views on nature.
After several endless Sunny days, I suddenly understood what polar day is for.
It’s the end of May now. You can still see snow on hills and in shadowy areas. It’s almost freezing at night. And it’ll snow again as early as in September. The summer is so short.
How can trees grow here? There are forests of them.
Scientists must be right with their theories. But I have mine, adapted from Kazakh nomads.
The polar day is for trees. They have to blossom, their seeds have to get into the ground, and new roots need to grow so long as to be able to survive through the long winter night.
That’s why our Earth turns its poles to the Sun to provide enough light to all Northern nature guys to compensate for the long winter night.
To be continued to figure out who is the polar night for. Locals say it’ll be dark for 24 hours starting from November. Let me live through the summer and I’ll find out.