Even in the 21st Century India, a Lunar Eclipse is seen as a bad omen. The disappearance of the Moon as a sign of danger and unending chaos. As one probes deeper into this area, one finds out the existence of ridiculous superstitions still believed in many parts of the country regarding the Lunar Eclipse. Let’s take a closer look at some such superstitions:
Pregnant Women Should Not Step Out: It is an automatically understood fact that pregnant women should take care of themselves at every moment. However, it is believed that if a pregnant woman goes out during an eclipse, the baby will be born with some sort of deformity. Although, a rationale can be provided that the UV rays of the Sun and the high energy radiation might affect the other and the child and everyone else alive at that moment, it is an utterly stupid belief that such a thing might happen as the pregnant woman commits a sin by stepping out of the house at such an inauspicious moment. However, that fact doesn’t apply when it comes to a Lunar Eclipse but is easily avoided and constructed into a myth.
Chances of Getting into an Accident runs Higher: It is said that riding a bike or driving a car should be avoided during an eclipse as the chances of getting into an accident run higher during this time. No rationale can be provided for such assumptions.
Cutting Self During the Eclipse: One of the weirdest superstitions about a Lunar Eclipse is that if one cuts himself/herself during a Lunar Eclipse, the bleeding will not stop for a longer time. Such beliefs have no grounding whatsoever. Hurting oneself remotely has anything to do with an astronomical event.
Taking a Bath: Providing with the rationale that the eclipse has disturbed the sanctity of one’s body, people rush to take a bath after an eclipse/ However, they forget the fact that the water they use to clean themselves was exposed to the same radiation as they were.
Eating: It was said that anything consumed during a Lunar Eclipse turns into poison inside the body and thus, causes major harm to the individual. To make it sound more legitimate, people propagated the fact that the energy emitted through an eclipse has the power to cause indigestion and the harmful rays that the earth is exposed to gets ingested into our body. However, researchers have made it clear that there is no proof that eating food or drinking water during eclipse does not harm your health in any way.
The sole reason that a Lunar Eclipse is considered inauspicious and that so any superstitions surround it lies with the fact that the Solar Eclipse finds itself mentioned in the ‘Mahabharata’ and the Lunar Eclipse doesn’t.
