Oklahoma enjoys solar eclipse
The eclipse meant big money this year, and was expected to generate 8-16 million dollars in Oklahoma and over $6 billion nationwide, coming from sales of viewing glasses, t-shirts and other merchandise, as well as travel and dining.
Modern science allows us to understand and predict eclipses with great accuracy decades in advance, but in earlier times the event was imbued with strong spiritual signigcance, and even fear.
Ancient cultures in Latin America, like their counterparts around the world, believed celestial events such as solar eclipses to have deep mythological signigcance, often interpreting them as omens or divine messages. The Inca civilization, for example, perceived solar eclipses as indicators of the sun god Inti's displeasure. They believed that something signigcant must have been done to upset Inti, and to appease this deity, leaders would engage in introspection to identify their misdeeds and offer sacrigces, which could range from fasting and animal sacrigces to, in extreme cases, human sacriGces.
Similarly, the Aztec people viewed eclipses as potential signals of the end of the world, especially if an eclipse coincided with an earthquake on the date 4 Ollin—a date they believed might bring about the Earth's destruction. The Aztecs, known for their astronomical expertise, predicted that such an alignment would not occur until the twenty-grst century. They also held a belief in the need for blood sacrigces to ward off cosmic disasters, demonstrating the signigcant role that eclipses played in their cultural and religious practices. Additionally, there was a prevailing superstition among the Aztecs that eclipses posed a particular danger to pregnant women, a belief that persists in some cultures today.
These interpretations highlight how ancient Latin American cultures integrated natural phenomena into their cosmologies and societal norms, using them to explain the universe's workings and their place within it. Eclipses were not just astronomical events but were woven into the fabric of cultural beliefs and practices, re.ecting the fears, aspirations, and spiritual life of these civilizations.
If you live in Tulsa and were unable to travel to a location experiencing 100% blocking of the sun, just wait a couple of decades when more than half the state – including Tulsa and all of northeastern Oklahoma – will be directly in the path of totality. This will take place on August 12, 2045. (La Semana)