The cold was the thing that surprised me the during the solar eclipse. As Moon began to eat the Sun, the temperature fell with each bite. It felt like it dropped about ten degrees in minutes. The air became still. The bright and warm afternoon turned to cool dusk as the Moon moved between the Sun and Earth, blocking its life-giving light and warmth.
We sat in the park staring at the Sun with special glasses. These protected our eyes by blocking the usually eye-harming rays of bright life-light. Through the glasses, the sky was dark, and the fiery orange Sun shimmered. The chatty crowd grew quiet as the Sun moved from a full disc to a shrinking crescent, and then disappeared. The sky became black. No stars. No sunlight. No life.
Eclipses are rare but predictable enough that they were noted in ancient calendars. The most accurate of these were developed in ancient Egypt, China, Babylonia, India and among the Maya. These cultures don’t get the credit for developing advance scientific knowledge.
The Mayan calendar was so sophisticated that it predicated eclipses millennia into the future. This was useful for rulers. Like the best politicians they spun the eclipses to reflect and cement their rule. Something along the lines of ‘look at me I am so powerful and that I can command the sun to disappear and then appear again. Therefore, I am blessed by the gods to govern you ordinary folks. I am the son of the gods.’
Partial eclipses are common. Total solar eclipses are rare, and the places that see it fall into the path of totality during the eclipse. The 2024 path was across a broad band of North America. We drove to Burlington, an hour west of Toronto, to see the eclipse. Tens of thousands of people crowded the waterfront. We witnessed an event that we would not see in this part of the world again until August 2044. Of course, for the next total solar eclipse we could always to Europe in 2026.
What more could the Maya have achieved? This Indigenous ancient civilization stretched across Central America. It was old before 1492. The Maya are still here. A Mayan calendar is a typical tourist souvenir. We heard Maya language and marvelled at their science in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Maya science helped saved the world in the film.
In most ancient religions, eclipses were seen as an omen, a clash among the gods or between good and evil. Special rituals and ceremonies were held to help the return of the Sun. Feasts, carnivals or bacchanalia for the community. Sacrifices of the unlucky ones chosen to give their blood to the Sun. Eclipses were brilliant moments of propaganda for religious and political elites.
The sudden dark and the cold were a bit unnerving in the late afternoon. We removed the special glasses and stared at the Sun when it was totally hidden by the Moon. A ring of light had replaced the orb of fire. It looked like a giant diamond ring. Even though I knew the Moon would move and the Sun would glow, it felt like it took forever do so. A total eclipse lasts for about five minutes. That is a long time to wait, suspended in the dark, waiting for the life-giving Sun to shine. I felt the power of the ancient stories. The crowd clapped and cheered when the Sun reappeared, just as we did in ancient times.
© Jacqueline L. Scott. You can support the blog here.
Black Outdoors 
It was a very surreal moment witnessing this eclipse, I agree. Very happy to have been in Kingston, Ontario at the right time
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