Page:Illustrated Astronomy.pdf/91

 EUROPE

In the Nordic tradition, eclipses are a result of a fight between two wolves in the sky, called Skoll and Hati, who are always chasing the Moon and the Sun.

When they are caught, the darkness comes, and the red color, seen over the Moon during a lunar eclipse, would be blood splatters that cover it because Skoll has already bitten him.

In Germany, female and male roles assigned to the Moon and the Sun are different, although the reason for this is not very clear. The myth reads that during the day, the lazy, cold Moon (male) ignore the hot Sun (female), except for the fleeting moment of passion during the eclipse of Sun. After a minor fight, the Sun comes back to shine.

AFRICA

It is believed that in some western regions in Africa, the Sun (male) and the Moon (female) have a romantic relationship, and during the eclipses, they turn off the lights to have more intimacy.

Furthermore, the inhabitants of the Batammariba region (Togo and Benin) believe that during eclipses, the Moon and the Sun are involved in a fight, and people urge both to stop fighting. Part of that consists of setting the example. That’s why during the eclipses, people make peace or different conflicts between families or other kinds of problems are solved, even those issues that could have been dragged along for years.

In ancient Egypt it was believed that pharaohs were direct descendants of the god Sun and, consequently, their representatives on Earth. During a solar eclipse, the pharaoh walked around the main temple of Osiris until the event ended. The idea behind this was that the Sun should have move continuously, and when it started to get dark, its human representative should have done whatever in its power to regulate the motions in the sky. This ritual is also present in Chinese culture, where the emperor or ruler also was a Sun descendant, walking outside the temple. • • • 91