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Perseids Shower Night: Why do we make a wish upon a shooting star?

Time to Make A Wish. The most spectacular summer shower of shooting stars, the meteor shower of Perseid, will reach its peak on Sunday at dawn. The Perseids will be visible on the sky above Greece and on the north hemisphere sky, in general.

Those who will stay awake will have the opportunity, if the weather conditions allow it, to observe the phenomenon.

Just a couple of days after the Full Moon on Monday, the moon is still very bright and may be an obstacle. It will hinder the observation of the full event and only the brighter falling stars will be visible. Also city lights do not help, so better move to a park, a beach or a hill.

The Perseids are one of the most spectacular meteor shower phenomena every year because of their brightness and speed as they have long fiery “tails”.

Despite the fact that the Perseids originate mostly from north-northeast of the constellation of Perseus they appear everywhere on the sky and not at a specific part of the sky every year.

Perseids forever – Why do we make a wish?

I remember when we were romantic teenagers, we would gather at the roof tops and gaze at the sky for hours.

Some of us were quick to see the falling star and make a wish and others were not – the latter may had fallen asleep or they were looking just at one point in the sky and did not do scanning. Or they were simply were bored.

I remember very well, a voice saying in the dark “There!” and a finger pointing at the sky embroidered with millions and billions of stars. Then, a chorus of voices would shout “Where? Where?” and “Damn’d!”. But the star had fallen from the sky. It had disappeared for ever. It was  just one of us, just one of the teenagers on the roof of our home who was lucky and quick enough to make a wish.

I suppose, at this tender teenager age, we all had one wish: to find the true love and the most handsome one. Ha!

One of our friends, though, had problems with the whole magic event. She had never her wish ready. This girl had a bad habit: she would first see the shooting star and then search inside her for a wish.Too late! Always, too late! We kept telling her to have her wish ready and speak it the moment the star would fall. Nope. It didn’t work. She would do the same mistake again and again. Maybe deep inside her she didn’t believe her wish would come true. Deep inside her she was thinking, the whole thing was just a silly girlie game.

I assume, back then, our grannies would wish for good health, and mothers that kids are successful pupils, students and professionals.

Simple life, simple wishes.

Nowadays, teenagers may still wish for the true love, but older age groups struggling with austerity may have more complicated wishes.

A young professional – but also her mother and her granny, they all – wish, she finds a true job and a true salary.

A grandpa will most likely wish that his pension will keep coming without additional cuts.

But why do we make a wish as a shooting star vanishes in trillions of particles and disappears in the huge, dark space?

In ancient time, the mysterious cosmic event of shooting stars was considered to be a gift from gods. It was a symbol for enlightenment and illumination from above.

So if you look up at the sky and make a wish, the shooting star will inspire you and reveal the way how to achieve your goal.

At least, this is what I understood from surfing through the internet on why we make a wish to a shooting star.

PS I have one wish ready for tonight: that this bloody heatwave finally disappears together with the shooting star. Of course, I should prepare more wishes for the case stars would start shooting from all sides and at the same time like in the picture above. 🙂

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