oh lunar!

"oh luna, why did you leave me alone? i need you badly. oh luna, please stay! i cannot live my life without you. you are my soul, my body, my life. luna, i love you. please dont leave me."

- enchantress

just a few minutes ago, i am staring head sky above the starry night. the moon has changed its color, it becam brightly yellow red. gosh! well, i knew at once what's happening. we are having a lunar eclipse. weeew! ehe!



according to encyclopedia.com

"A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, the Moon is always full during a lunar eclipse. The type and length of an eclipse depend upon the Moon's location relative to its orbital nodes. The most recent total lunar eclipse was on 3 and 4 March 2007. The next one will occur on 28 August 2007."

well, based on the definition, i think it is clear that it is a lunar eclipse.

hmmm.. is there any superstitious beliefs about lunar eclipse or when lunar eclipse happen?

here are some theories and stories:

1. The Chaldæans were careful observers of eclipses, and Berosus believed that when the moon was obscured she turned to us her dark side.
2. Anaximenes said that her mouth was stopped. Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and the Mathematicians said that she fell into conjunction with the bright sun.
3. Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ (born B.C. 499) was the first to explain the eclipse of the moon as caused by the shadow of the earth cast by the sun. But he was as one born out of due time. We are all familiar with the use made by students of unfulfilled prophecyof every extraordinary occurrence in nature, such as the sudden appearance of a comet, an earthquake, an eclipse, etc.
4. We know how mysteriously they interpret those simple passages in the Bible about the sun being darkened and the moon being turned into blood. If they were not wilfully blind, such facts as are established by the following quotations would open their eyes to the errors in their exegesis.
5. the lunar eclipse is the most terrible phenomena to heathens was an eclipse of the sun or moon, which they associated with a destruction of all things and the end of the world.
6. The Indian belief is that a serpent eats up the sun and moon when they arc eclipsed, or a demon devours them.
7. To this day the Hindoos consider that a giant lays hold of the luminaries and tries to swallow them. The Chinese call the solar eclipse zhishi (solis devoratio), the lunar yueshi (lunæ devoratio), and ascribe them both to the machinations of a dragon. Nearly all the populations of Northern Asia hold the same opinion.
8. The Finns of Europe, the Lithuanians, and the Moors in Africa, have a similar belief." Flammarion says: "Among the ancient nations people used to come to the assistance of the moon, by making a confused noise with all kinds of instruments, when it was eclipsed.
9. In America the idea is that the sun and moon are tired when they are eclipsed. But the more refined Greeks believed for a long time that the moon was bewitched, and that the magicians made it descend from heaven to put into the herbs a certain maleficent froth

there are many more..

but i dont believe in such superstitions about lunar eclipses.

for more information about superstitions of lunar eclipses just click here.

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