Eclipses Used To Be Terrifying

Fun Fact: The serpent in the thumbnail is known as Bakunawa, he wants to eat the Moon, and when he successfully does (but only for a short while because Filipino deities make him spit it out), he causes eclipses.

Too bad ancient people didn't have Wan Shi Tong's spirit library so they could predict an eclipse to defeat the fire nation.

It's crazy how much patience and methodical record-keeping is necessary to predict eclipses

If you can get to where the total eclipse next April crosses (path of totality), ABSOLUTELY do. A partial eclipse like most of us will see in the US tomorrow is kinda neat. A total eclipse is COMPLETELY different with weird physical phenomena that make you understand why it was so scary to ancient cultures. It's more than just the sky going dark. We understand the physical phenomena involved but it still feels like an ethereal experience. Tomorrow pay attention to shadows on the ground as the partial eclipse passes. You will notice they change, and the shadows between leaves make it clear why - the shadow of the moon is shaping the light that the edges of nearer shadows are bringing into focus. This effect is more pronounced near totality and with animals falling suddenly silent and the temperature suddenly dropping, nearly all your senses tell you something strange is going on.

Fear of the unknown is the most terrifying thing ever.

Lunar Eclipse: Moon turns red because moon is mad or something Solar Eclipse: *E A T T H E S U N*

They still are - Guts

Small correction - in Chinese the most common form of the myth is actually 天狗食日, which translates to "Celestial Dog Eating the Sun". The celestial dog is also related to the myth of Chang'e and Houyi and it is rumored to cause both solar and lunar elipses.

Got to see a 75% solar eclipse in Washington back in '17, it was pretty surreal

The path of 100% eclipse is really narrow, and it passed over my home 3 years ago!!! A really odd, once-in-a-lifetime experience. [if you move to see one, be sure to be near the center of the path, where complete darkness lasts longer; we were near one border, so full darkness was brief]

If you don't know what's actually going on, seeing the Sun itself go dark can be quite ominous indeed.

As a Terraria player, they STILL are terrifying.

The babylonians are insane, imagine measuring that hundreds of years before tech meant for the skies

It's was terrifying because when the sun was "eaten" by a black circle most of the people who watched the event lost their sights

"Like the solar eclipse that will happen on September 7, 2974; that will happen on 12:51 pm local time, will pas right over Stonehenge." Mark your calendars people! This is an incredible once in a lifetime opportunity you don't want to miss edit: Darn, I'm busy that week...

I reasearched some of this for my mythology art project my senior year. The minokawa was my favorite. In the Philippines, the islanders believed that eclipses were caused by a giant bird with a metal beak and claws (the minokawa) trying to eat the moon. If it succeeded, it would then eat the sun, and then the earth. BUT they also believed you could scare off the beast with loud noises. So basically every time an eclipse happened the ancient Filipino people would start playing music and yelling at the sky until it stopped 😂 (no disrespect to the Filipino ppl btw, it’s just a funny mental image. “HONEY, THE MOONS BEING EATEN AGAIN! GET THE DRUMS!!” Plays music in panic )

The best weapon against fear is knowledge.

Who’s here after seeing the April 8 total solar eclipse?

So sad you didn't even mentioned the Maya and other mesoamerican civilizations, that were extremely good at keeping record of eclipses 😢

As an Oregonian, I was so excited to see the eclipse tomorrow morning... Then I realized it'd be super cloudy everywhere around 😭