{"id":45032,"date":"2021-09-04T16:28:22","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T23:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=45032"},"modified":"2021-09-04T17:39:50","modified_gmt":"2021-09-05T00:39:50","slug":"an-organic-lightshow-farewell-to-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2021\/09\/04\/an-organic-lightshow-farewell-to-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Nature&#8217;s Farewell Lightshow to Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This Monday, Labor Day, will mark the unofficial close of summer 2021.\u00a0 One of my fondest childhood summer memories is being entranced by the annual low-key lightshow in June and July courtesy of fireflies.\u00a0 And of course, catching them in my Mom&#8217;s Ball Mason jars.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_zz.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45033\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_zz.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_zz.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_zz-300x108.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_zz-1024x370.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_zz-150x54.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_zz-768x277.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_zz-1536x555.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But sadly, with pollution and conversion of rural land to subdivisions, that delightful experience is becoming harder and harder to come by for kids today.\u00a0 So I thought it&#8217;d be fun to revisit those sweet childhood memories before Fall sets in, in a final farewell to Summer.<\/p>\n<p>While there still are areas blessed with fireflies here, Japan is the Mecca for those who truly want to enjoy spectacular firefly shows.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u6708\u591c\u306e\u86cd \u9577\u91ce\u770c\u677e\u5c3e\u5ce1 5000\u5339\u306e\u86cd\u306e\u4e71\u821e - Fireflies in the moonlight - (shot on BMPCC4K)\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P9x83ydhjWs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>First, a little background: Fireflies are a type beetle with more than 2,000 species.\u00a0 The males use their flashing light while flying to attract females who are usually resting in the grass.\u00a0 When she sees a flashing pattern she particularly fancies, she&#8217;ll flash back to signal she&#8217;s interested in mating.<\/p>\n<p>While the adult firefly only lives about two months, typically in June and July (give or take a few weeks), that still gives them plenty of time to produce eggs that will hatch into larvae and then emerge from their pupae next summer to put on a new lightshow.<\/p>\n<p>In Japan, fireflies are called <em>Hotaru<\/em>.\u00a0 While Japan has about 45 different species, only 14 of them have the flashing capability.<\/p>\n<p>In the Heian era (794 \u2013 1185) noblemen and women would take excursions into the countryside just to enjoy the firefly lightshows, as it was the epitome of summer enjoyment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_Single.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45037\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_Single.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"542\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fireflies in Japan are seen as symbols of both love and war, and celebrated in song and writings.\u00a0 In fact, in <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Tale_of_Genji\">The Tale of Genji<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (which some view as the world&#8217;s first novel) the hero provides his brother a brief glimpse of a beautiful damsel by releasing a bag of fireflies in her boudoir.\u00a0 Yet others think that their ethereal lights are the altered remnants of the souls of soldiers killed in battle.<\/p>\n<p>In a myriad of ways fireflies play a prominent role in Japanese culture \u2013 like in the song <em>&#8220;Hotaru no Hikari&#8221;<\/em> (Light of the Firefly).\u00a0 It&#8217;s one of the most popular songs in Japan, traditionally sung when parting ways or marking the end of the year.\u00a0 So it&#8217;s no surprise it&#8217;s sung to the tune of the Scottish song <em>&#8220;Auld Lang Syne&#8221;<\/em> (which doesn&#8217;t mention a <em><u>single<\/u><\/em> firefly).<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also worked its way into the language, such as <em>&#8220;Keisetsu-jidadi&#8221;<\/em> which literally means &#8220;the era of the firefly and snow&#8221;.\u00a0 It refers to one&#8217;s days as student, back when children would study by the light provided by fireflies or at the window in the winter with light reflected off the snow.<\/p>\n<p>A very recent addition to their lexicon is <em>&#8220;hotaru-zoku&#8221;<\/em> (firefly tribe). \u00a0There are many high-rise apartments in Japan, and men are typically forced to smoke outside on their balconies.\u00a0 So the glow from the cigarettes mimics the glow of the firefly, which can&#8217;t survive in urban spaces.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_Group.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45034\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_Group.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today, Japanese families takes trips to dozens of rural locations that are designated as firefly reserves.\u00a0 These spots provide the three essentials for fireflies to live: [1] Clean, unpolluted water (that&#8217;s where the larvae live); [2] Grassy banks and trees along the waterways (where they can rest); and [3] Darkness (so they can see each other in order to select a mate).<\/p>\n<p>Some of the best-known firefly photos were taken by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mymodernmet.com\/daniel-kordan-hotaru-firefly-photos\/\">Daniel Kordan<\/a><\/strong>, a Russian landscape photographers.\u00a0 An assignment in Japan happened to coincide with the peak time for firefly viewing \u2013 and he was hooked.\u00a0 <em>\u201cI felt like a kid looking for the first time in my life at a Christmas tree!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s enjoy some of his work.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_Kordan.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45036\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_Kordan.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One of the most unique and rare attributes of fireflies are males that actually synchronize their flashes.\u00a0 They&#8217;re found in a very limited number of sites: the Great Smoky Mountains, the mangrove forests in Southeast Asia that light up the whole tree, and the island of Okinawa.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_Group_Synch-.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-45035\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Fireflies_Group_Synch-.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"541\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, the synchronous lightshow of the\u00a0<em>Photinus carolinus<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/synchronous-fireflies-great-smoky-mountains-2653387318.html\">firefly is so mesmerizing that it draws<\/a>\u00a0over 12,000 visitors every year to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Elkmont, TN.<\/p>\n<p>For those that want to learn more on how the males synchronize their flashes, here are two links:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/firefly-synchronization-2653841078.html\"><strong>https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/firefly-synchronization-2653841078.html<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/synchronous-fireflies-great-smoky-mountains-2653387318.html\">https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/synchronous-fireflies-great-smoky-mountains-2653387318.html<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But if we don&#8217;t understand all the details on how and why, we can still enjoy their show:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tennessee Fireflies: Realtime Stock Footage\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EnwVVE-EGVw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And so we bid a fond farewell to our childhood days of summer \u2026<\/p>\n<p><em>(I always wanted to use that phrase.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Monday, Labor Day, will mark the unofficial close of summer 2021.\u00a0 One of my fondest childhood summer memories is being entranced by the annual low-key lightshow in June and July courtesy of fireflies.\u00a0 And of course, catching them in my Mom&#8217;s Ball Mason jars. But sadly, with pollution and conversion of rural land to <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2021\/09\/04\/an-organic-lightshow-farewell-to-summer\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4546,4548,4547],"class_list":["post-45032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-fireflies","tag-great-smoky-mountains","tag-japan","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}