Changed Into Night
With all this hype today, I did my research and found out where I plan to be on 12 August, 2026, at 8:30 PM. I will have to be somewhere to the north or east of Santiago; we're too far to the southwest here. That is the day a total eclipse is forecast for this area. It will swoop down from Greenland, Iceland and beyond, to Spain, where it crosses from the northwest, over the Balearic Islands, to die with the sunset just before reaching the southern edge of Sardinia.
The last time we had an eclipse of the sun was the partial eclipse in March, 2015. The day became a little fuzzy, the sky not so blue, the light weak, the air a little cooler. What must it be like to have the sunlight totally blotted out and day turn into instant night? An article in The New York Times today recommends seeing it with a crowd of people because the feelings are so overwhelming. Suddenly, it is total night, and the temperatures drop, and there is not light except far on the horizon. It is frightening and humbling. I have sometimes contemplated the sunny day and felt tinier than a speck of dust thinking of how, if the star that illuminates us were to suddenly disappear, we would become a frozen rock suspended in space. The warm day, the bright colors, all the greens we can see in nature around us, the blue, blue sky, everything, would cease to exist. We would cease to exist.
It's easy to understand the fears of those who came before us upon contemplating the seeming demise of the sunlight. Many considered it a bad omen. In many places it was believed that giant demons in the form of animals were eating the sun, and efforts were made to fight them off. In others, it was seen as a new beginning, and a time of reconciliation.
Eclipses have been used to describe the outcome of a battle, though mostly with hindsight. Herodotus mentioned that a sudden darkness occurred during the third Persian invasion of Greece, "...the sun suddenly quitted its place in the heavens and disappeared, though there were no clouds in sight and the day was quite clear; day was thus turned into night." Herodotus also mentioned how an eclipse predicted by the philosopher Thales, interrupted a battle between the Medes and the Lydians; "...just as the battle was growing warm, day was on a sudden changed into night...when they observed the change [they] ceased the fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on."
While now they are known exactly for what they are and that we have no cause for fear, atavistic memory will make many tremble. It has to be one of the most illuminating moments in a lifetime. It is another reminder that we have no power over the skies nor the earth, and that we are all just along for the ride.
The last time we had an eclipse of the sun was the partial eclipse in March, 2015. The day became a little fuzzy, the sky not so blue, the light weak, the air a little cooler. What must it be like to have the sunlight totally blotted out and day turn into instant night? An article in The New York Times today recommends seeing it with a crowd of people because the feelings are so overwhelming. Suddenly, it is total night, and the temperatures drop, and there is not light except far on the horizon. It is frightening and humbling. I have sometimes contemplated the sunny day and felt tinier than a speck of dust thinking of how, if the star that illuminates us were to suddenly disappear, we would become a frozen rock suspended in space. The warm day, the bright colors, all the greens we can see in nature around us, the blue, blue sky, everything, would cease to exist. We would cease to exist.
It's easy to understand the fears of those who came before us upon contemplating the seeming demise of the sunlight. Many considered it a bad omen. In many places it was believed that giant demons in the form of animals were eating the sun, and efforts were made to fight them off. In others, it was seen as a new beginning, and a time of reconciliation.
Eclipses have been used to describe the outcome of a battle, though mostly with hindsight. Herodotus mentioned that a sudden darkness occurred during the third Persian invasion of Greece, "...the sun suddenly quitted its place in the heavens and disappeared, though there were no clouds in sight and the day was quite clear; day was thus turned into night." Herodotus also mentioned how an eclipse predicted by the philosopher Thales, interrupted a battle between the Medes and the Lydians; "...just as the battle was growing warm, day was on a sudden changed into night...when they observed the change [they] ceased the fighting, and were alike anxious to have terms of peace agreed on."
While now they are known exactly for what they are and that we have no cause for fear, atavistic memory will make many tremble. It has to be one of the most illuminating moments in a lifetime. It is another reminder that we have no power over the skies nor the earth, and that we are all just along for the ride.
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