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[Alexandr Korol]

the drink of immortality (amrita). Vishnu cut off his head, but the head became
immortal and now eternally chases the sun and the moon in order to “swallow”
them. This is precisely how solar and lunar eclipses are explained (in Sanskrit —
grahana). Rahu “eats” the sun, Ketu — the moon, but since the head has no body,
the light quickly returns. Thais and many in India to this day observe rituals during
an eclipse — fasting, prayers, ablutions.

Chinese mythology
The ancient Chinese (records go back 4,000+ years) believed that an eclipse is a celestial
dragon (or sometimes a black dog) that devours the sun. The earliest word for an eclipse
is “shi”(食), that is, “to eat, to devour.” To save the sun, people would beat drums,
shout, shoot arrows into the sky — and the dragon would take fright, releasing the
luminary. Lunar eclipses didn’t particularly trouble them; they considered them “an
ordinary matter.”

Norse mythology (the Edda)
Here wolves enter the picture. The wolf Sköll chases the sun, Hati — the moon.
The most terrible is Managarm (or Fenrir in some versions), who will one day
swallow them, and Ragnarök will come — the end of the world. During an eclipse
the Vikings, too, made noise in order to frighten off the monsters.

The Bible (Christianity and Judaism)
In Holy Scripture, eclipses are mentioned as signs from God, often connected with
judgment, the end of times, or important events.
• The Book of the Prophet Amos (8:9): “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith
the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the
earth in the clear day.”
• In the Gospels (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44–45), during the crucifixion
of Jesus, “there was darkness over all the land” from noon until three o’clock — many
interpret this as a solar eclipse (although historians dispute the exact date).
• In the Revelation of John and other prophecies: “the sun shall be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light” — as a sign of the last days and the Second Coming.
For many Christians, eclipses are to this day a reminder of God’s plan.