22 Jul 2009

On the day of the new moon, in the month of Hiyar

 "On the day of the new moon, in the month of Hiyar, the Sun was put to shame, and went down in the daytime...''

This quote is one of the earliest written records of an eclipse of the Sun, on 3 May 1375 BC, found in the city of Ugarit in Mesopotamia.

So, here's where my confusion lies; There's press coverage of the solar eclipse from India yesterday, wherein people are bathing and praying in the Ganges BECAUSE OF the eclipse. So, you're praying to a planetary phenomena? The polar opposite of anything even vaguely religious happening? Meh?



Aaaanyway - there are quite a few 'standard' photos of the Asian eclipse on the net, but I prefer this one - taken from a plane - to the usual shots. Also, there seems to be a little Channel 4 logo to the lower left. See it? Spooky.