Myth 2: Watching eclipse if you’re pregnant can harm your baby
Many ancient people worried an eclipse caused pregnancy issues such as blindness, cleft lips, and birthmarks, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Today, this myth is, like the food fears, tied to the fear of radiation.
There are several variations on this. Some people have thought a solar eclipse means the end of the world. Astrologers may say that solar eclipses on your birthday, or six months afterward, signal impending bad health.
Psychologists call this confirmation bias: We remember when two things happened together, but forget all the times they didn’t. In other words, our tendency to see only data that supports an idea and ignore the rest.
Not all the folklore is frightening. In Tahitian myth, the sun and moon are lovers who join up – providing an eclipse – but get lost in the moment. They created stars to light their return. In Bohemia, miners believed an eclipse meant good luck finding gold. According to Choctaw legend, a mischievous black squirrel gnaws on the sun.
In the U.S. Northwest, according to Exploratorium, the Pomo people’s name for a solar eclipse is “Sun got bit by a bear.” They tell a story about a bear who goes out for a stroll along the Milky Way. The bear meets up with the sun, and the two begin to argue about who will move out of the other’s path. The argument turns into a fight, which is the eclipse.
That said, most of the stories are scary. In Japan, people once believed poison dropped from the sky during an eclipse, so they covered all the wells, according to KidsEclipse.
As per the Old Farmer’s Almanac, fear led Chippewa people to shoot flaming arrows into the sky to try to rekindle the sun. Tribes in Peru did the same for a different reason: They hoped to scare off a beast attacking the sun. In Transylvanian folklore, an eclipse stems from the angry sun turning away in response to men’s bad behavior.
Rulers throughout history have been
Many legends explain an eclipse as the sun being eaten and tell what people did to have it return to normal. Exploratorium gathered these legends from around the world:
● In Vietnam, legend has it that a giant frog swallows the sun. Its master, the lord of Hahn, convinces the frog to spit it out.
● In Javanese mythology, the god of darkness, Batara Kala, swallows the sun. Javanese villagers try to make Batara Kala release the sun by offering sacrifices and beating drums.
● In Andean mythology, a puma devours the sun. To prevent the sun’s death, the puma must be frightened away by the screams of children and the cries of animals.