As I type this, I'm in a middle of an ongoing lunar eclipse, one of its kind. The moon is shining in its pristine glory, bathed in red glow, looking at its absolute best. A celestial treat for all the stargazers!
..and all I hear on the news channels and radio is- how to protect yourself from the evil rays of the eclipse. They tell us to not eat or drink anything, or to put a basil leaf on our food to 'purify' it and to chant holy mantras throughout.
Now I understand where these myths are coming from. They have been taught to us by our ancestors and it does sort of makes sense to believe them but in the past.
Long back when the human civilization wasn't as advanced as it is today, we heavily relied on the rhythm of the world, to make sense of an order in life. We noticed that the sun rises in the morning, the sun sets in the evening, and that a silver moon shines up the night. Any slight difference in this pattern would set an alarm - causing a panic among people and they were determined that this disorder is a threat to their existence.
The old folk stories related to eclipses often involved demons, dragons, evil spirits and gods and when the eclipse had ended they rejoiced their victory.
Fast forward to today, we are in a scientific era and these superstitions still haven't completely gone away. The bits and pieces still remain or have been modified to suit accordingly.
Even now, a slight change in our routine brings us in a panic of our well being and this is wired in our roots-our DNA. We have been hardwired to worry about us, our well being to survive and hence the astrological gurus will continue to mint money on our fears.
This is why we still continue to believe in superstitions which aren't backed up by science.
Do we really need to fear the eclipse?
No.
We are inside a giant gas ball that has been revolving around the sun and has a celestial friend called the moon who revolves around us. There are times when we all three coincidently are in the same line and this phenomenon is called the lunar eclipse.
That's it! Yes, pretty straightforward.
Also, it's super pretty and you should look up at this rare phenomenon at least once. It's a sight to behold.
It's time that we act like the civilization that landed on the moon to marvel at this beauty together. Shall we?
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