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Quite more exhilarating is the legend of the Batammaliba people in Togo and Benin in Africa. Traditionally, they view a lunar eclipse as a conflict between the sun and the moon – a conflict that people must encourage them to resolve. It is therefore time to put an end to old feuds, a practice that has remained to this day
. In Islamic cultures, eclipses tend to be interpreted without superstition. In Islam, the sun and the moon represent a deep respect for Allah, so during an eclipse special prayers are sung, including a Salat-al-khusuf, a "prayer on a lunar eclipse". He asks both for the forgiveness of Allah and reaffirms the greatness of Allah.
Once again in the blood, Christianity likened lunar eclipses to the wrath of God and often badociates them with the crucifixion of Jesus. It is remarkable that Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, ensuring that an eclipse can never fall on Easter Sunday, a potential mark of the Day of Judgment.
Indeed, the term "blood moon" was popularized in 2013 following the publication of the book Four Blood Moons by Christian Minister John Hagee. It promotes an apocalyptic belief known as the "Blood Moon Prophecy" highlighting a lunar sequence of four total eclipses that occurred in 2014-2015. Hagee notes that all four have fallen on the Jewish holidays, which happened only three times before – each apparently marked by bad events.
The prophecy was rejected by Mike Moore (general secretary of Christian Witness to Israel) in 2014, but the term is still used regularly by the media and has become a worrying synonym for a lunar eclipse.
Given persistent superstitions, it is profoundly useless for science communicators to remind everyone that the so-called "blood moon" is nothing to fear. This may be impressive, and it may be the longest since a century, but it's simply an eclipse.
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