We know enough about the case of asolar eclipseto think of it as awe - inspiring instead of terrifying . But calculate forward to the disappearance of the Lord’s Day is a relatively new development in human history .
For centuries , people scrambled as the Earth plunge into wickedness and feared the worst — a terror that ranged from the belief that demons swallowed the sun to being rejected by their gods . It ’s completely natural for humans , in the absence of scientific explanations , to developsuperstitions around lifelike phenomena .
The Scripture " eclipse " originate from a Grecian full term for abandonment , " ekleipsis , " according to E. C. Krupp , an authority on astonomy and culture ; Krupp ’s been the music director of Los Angeles ' Griffith Observatory for nearly four decades . But long before the Greeks , the ancient people of Mexico recorded their own reactions . Mayans created glyph that showeda giant serpentswallowing the sun and Aztecs erupted into bedlam and begin sacrificing those with the light skin colour .
Many Chinese believed solar eclipses were due to dragon — or in some cases , fiend — that lurked among the star until they abruptly lead off eating the sun . mutation of this mythexist in other culture . The Hungarians envisioned a giant sun - eating razzing , while the Siberians trust a jumbo bear was to blame . In Korea , the culprits were fire frank , and an indigenous the great unwashed in Asia feared an evil toad that gobbled the sun like a tent flap .
One of the most complex solar occultation myths involvesa Hindu fiend called Rahu , who steal a potion for immortality . Rahu ’s theft was witnessed by the sunshine and moon , who reported it to the Hindu god Vishnu . As punishment , Vishnu decapitated Rahu and caused his head to hold up always but his body to wither away . Still seeking vengeance upon the cosmic snitches , Rahu ’s disembodied head go along to chase after the sun and moon — sometimes fascinate and swallow them and causing an eclipse . Without a organic structure , Rahu can not make them go away forever , and the Lord’s Day and moon simply reappear after fall through his throat .
A number of societies have held beliefs that an occultation can influence pregnancy , causing pregnant women to miscarry , give birth to baby with physical abnormalities or even transform intopredatory beaststhemselves — if the sun is n’t restored to its right state by priests , that is .
These belief may vocalise a short extremum to modernistic people , but rituals stemming from myth are still observed in many portion of the world . In India , fasting can occurbefore a solar eclipse and , during the phenomenon , some spiritual practitioners rede singing and chanting . disregardless of what activity eclipse witness engage in these days , one of the essence activity is towear right optic protection .
