Solar eclipse 2024 won't bring human sacrifice, but is there reason to worry?
Amelia Robinson is the Columbus Dispatch's opinion and community engagement editor.
It is logical that solar and lunar eclipses fascinate and terrify humanity.
Even partial eclipses are relatively rare, which in itself makes them relatively weird.
That fact is as true today as it was in ancient times even though modern fears are far less catastrophic and involve far less banging and human sacrifice (let's go with none).
Why is today’s solar eclipse such a big deal?
When I say people are fascinated by eclipses, I say it for good reason. They get our imaginations going.
Eclipses famously change the behavior of animals puzzled by the change in sunlight.
For example, a solar eclipse takes place after the extinction of the dinosaurs in the 1940 Disney movie "Fantasia" and Audrey II, a murderous house plant, is born from another solar eclipse in "Little Shop of Horrors."
The April 8 total eclipse that will be visible across Ohio is no different. Some folks are considering the bad things that can happen, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Solar eclipse 2024: How to watch the April 8 event and protect your eyes, kids and nerves
State lawmakers earmarked $1 million in the budget to reimburse communities that incur emergency response costs connected to the three minutes and 40 seconds of total darkness.
It will mark the first time in 200 years Ohio will experience a total solar eclipse. Columbus is not in the path of totality but those in Toledo, Bowling Green, Lima, Mansfield, Akron, Cleveland, Springfield and Dayton will get the full show.
And what a unique show it will be — weather cooperating. It is not to be missed.
The April 8 eclipse — the "Great North American Eclipse" — will be the last one visible from the contiguous United States until Aug. 23, 2044.
Why are there fears about the April 8 total solar eclipse?
The very real April 8 eclipse is expected to draw masses to the Buckeye State.
Rebecca Owens, director of the Richland County Emergency Management Agency, has predicted the Mansfield area alone could see as many as 250,000 guests the weekend of the eclipse.
Richland County had 124,936 residents in 2020, according to the U.S, Census.
Concern about the crush of out-of-town visitors and gridlock — total eclipses are big deals that people want to see for themselves — Summit County officials have advised residents there to watch the eclipse from their own backyard or a very nearby park.
The eclipse and banging, wolves and human sacrifice
Fears about the traffic associated with eclipses are better than the fears that came with them in ancient days.
The Inca considered solar eclipses a sign that the all-powerful sun god Inti was so majorly ticked that a rare human sacrifice was called for, according to Britannica.com.
An eclipse — particularly a lunar one — was considered very deadly omen for Babylonian kings. Ancient Babylonian scholars learned to predict eclipses.
During solar eclipses, some scholars believe Vikings made a ruckus to frighten the giant wolves Sk?ll and Hati, chasers and would-be eaters of the sun and moon, and stop the start of Ragnar?k — the end of the world as they knew it.
The Vikings are far from the only ones making an un-joyous noise during eclipses. As many as 4,000 years ago in China, people are said to have banged drums and yelled to drive off an invisible dragon as it tried to eat the sun during solar eclipses.
Eskimos covered themselves and valuables during eclipses believing the sun and moon were temporarily diseased, according to a column by Roger Culver, a Colorado State University emeritus professor of physics.
But as the Batammaliba, a West African people of northern Togo and Benin, showed an eclipse was not always a bad sign. According to Brtitannica.com, eclipses were a sign that human anger and fighting was so bad that it made it to the moon and sun. To fix the problem, Batammaliba people squashed feuds during eclipses to encourage peace among celestial bodies.
We do not have kings, human sacrifice is of course a no-no, and banging drums could generate noise complaints.
What we do have is the potential for traffic congestion and salty attitudes.
The Batammaliba people's response seems the best option in modern times.
On April 8, let's set an example of peace for the moon and sun.
Amelia Robinson is the Columbus Dispatch's opinion and community engagement editor.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Reasons to fear today’s solar eclipse unlike our ancestors' tales
