On April 8 in Gatesville, Texas, members of Coryell Community Church will gather at the hilltop site on campus where a 70-foot triple tower looms over the city of 17,000, 38 miles west of Waco.
The area is located in the middle of the total path of the solar eclipse, the last event of its kind to affect the contiguous United States until 2044. Ancient cultures viewed the dusk-like darkness caused by the moon’s passage between the Earth and the sun as temporary. Blocking out sunlight, as a sign of the gods’ wrath or even their imminent departure.
Instead, Coryell’s “Eclipse of the Crosses” family gathering will include live music, games and worship – an occasion for celebration. Meanwhile, organizers at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo purchased a thousand eclipse glasses for the viewing event, along with black-and-white half-moon cakes.
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As believers gather in scattered Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities across the country, the gatherings reflect how celestial events that some religious communities once considered ominous still have spiritual significance today.
“The eclipse is another opportunity to witness God’s work in the universe,” said Eric Moffett, Coryell’s senior pastor. “We are not looking for any omens in the universe, but we are using this opportunity to remind, for just over four minutes, that we live in a world made by God and sustained by his love and goodness.”
Eclipses have inspired fear and awe among civilizations throughout history, from the Aztecs to the ancient Hindus. It is also associated with some major religious events, including the darkness that accompanied the crucifixion of Christ in Christianity, and in Islam, the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s son, Abraham.
As the Bible Gospel says in Mark 15:33: “And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole earth until the ninth hour.”
Such references often emphasize God’s power over the universe, said James Willis, an assistant professor of the practice of religion at the University of Indianapolis.
“What we see today as an astronomical event was previously interpreted by people as having the significance of life and death,” Willis said.
Earlier this month, in the Choctaw Nation newspaper Biskinik, a recurring column exploring Choctaw culture noted that the sun is considered a source of life and good luck; For some communities, when a solar eclipse occurred, it was as if the sun was being devoured by the big black squirrels in the sky. In response, everyone was asked to make noise in an attempt to scare them away.
In most pre-modern cultures, the sun god was among the most powerful gods in the pantheon, said Bradley Schaeffer, a professor of astronomy at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The eclipse represented the destruction of that god – or at least a terrible sign.
“Where better to place signs from the gods than in heaven?” Schiffer said. “If you see a sign in the sky, it must be from the gods. They tell us something, and what was universal from culture to culture was that it was always bad.
In Islam, an eclipse provides an opportunity for prayer
Fourteen centuries ago, as Muhammad of Islam and his followers mourned his sick and dying son, the Prophet watched the little boy take his last breath as the sky above them darkened – the beginning of a total eclipse, he believed.
As the story goes, speculation spread among Muhammad’s followers that even the sun and moon were mourning his loss. In response, he called them to prayer and dispelled this idea, but added that such events, as signs of God’s power, should nonetheless inspire them to pray.
Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said the tradition sees solar and lunar eclipses as “a divine command unfolding in nature” while honoring the Prophet’s “steadfast refusal to use the fortuitous occasion of a solar eclipse.” Upon the death of his son as a means to strengthen his position.
Although the eclipse prayer in Islam is not obligatory, many still take time to recite it. During last fall’s annular eclipse, Muslim Americans gathered across the United States in places like the East Bay Muslim Community Center in Pleasanton, California; The Mecca Center in Willowbrook, Illinois; and at Commons Park in Fridley, Minnesota.
Nadia Abusneina, who volunteers as a Solar System Ambassador for NASA in the Minneapolis area, organized the event in Minnesota in hopes of sparking not only her community’s scientific curiosity, but also their sense of identity as Muslims.
However, she had no idea that the public gathering would come as Palestinians rush to evacuate northern Gaza in anticipation of a large-scale counterattack by Israeli forces, a week after the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. She said the timing made the meeting even more powerful.
“My community was in great pain, and this was a time for them to reflect and pray to God to ease the pain and suffering,” Abu Sneina said. “I never imagined that five months later, with the second eclipse, we would have to think about this and stand up for our brothers and sisters in Palestine.”
She recalled that those who witnessed the October eclipse were moved by the event, in particular, two elderly people cried.
“Whether they are tears of sadness over what happened in Gaza or just overwhelmed by the eclipse and strengthening their relationship with God, it is a great honor to allow people to do this,” she said.
With the April 8 event coming during the most intense period of Ramadan, Abu Sneina does not plan to arrange another prayer gathering. Instead, she plans to remind community members to take time to reflect.
An avid stargazer who takes any opportunity to view the night sky, isn’t about to miss a solar eclipse.
“If it’s sunny, I’ll take out all my eclipse glasses and knock on every door in my neighborhood,” Abu Sneina said. “It’s unfortunate to live your life and not know that these things happen.”
“A bad omen for the world”
Views about the eclipse vary widely within the Jewish community, said Mark Horowitz, chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo. More conservative members still view them as warnings, especially for those on their way to college, he said.
“There are a lot of people who don’t think this is a good time to put on glasses and get together and drink or whatever people are going to do,” Horowitz said. “Some people think this is a time for prayer and meditation.”
He pointed out that the Hebrew word for eclipse is translated as “defect.”
The Talmud, a central text in Judaism, says: “When the Nirons are struck, it is a bad omen for the world.” The passage provides the example of a king who, after preparing a feast for his servants, becomes angry with them and orders the removal of the lantern illuminating their feast.
Even now, there are those who say that heavenly events foretell God’s impending wrath; Some even claimed that it held political significance. In November 2022, some conservative Christian pastors said an approaching blood lunar eclipse heralded increased Republican victories in the midterm elections.
“God is warning America of impending disaster and destruction,” Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of famed evangelist Billy Graham and founder of AnGel Ministries, wrote on her blog as the August 2017 solar eclipse approached.
Recently, Lutz has seen speculation among some that the combined paths over the United States for this year’s and the previous two solar eclipses appear to mimic the shapes of the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet — in other words, the beginning and the end. end.
“People are probably reading too much into it,” she said. “But when you look at the world, you don’t need an eclipse to know that things have gotten really serious. Maybe it’s telling us that it’s time to make peace with God and with the people in our lives, so that we have no regrets.”
Eclipses offer a spiritual experience, even for non-believers
As the science behind the eclipse began to be understood, some used that knowledge to their advantage, said Schafer, of Louisiana State University, including Christopher Columbus, who was shipwrecked with his crew in Jamaica in 1504, and for months relied on locals to provide assistance. Food versus jewelry.
When those gifts began to run out, the indigenous people refused to continue, Schaefer said. Columbus toyed with the idea of using an approaching lunar eclipse to convince the locals that he could communicate with the gods and make the moon disappear.
“That’s the beauty of science, when you make predictions they become true,” Schiffer said. “Columbus knew it was just a shadow. But the Jamaicans looked at it as the death of a god. Once you understand what an eclipse is, it is no longer the realm of the gods.
However, he said, even the way Americans view eclipses has changed over time. Accounts of New Yorkers who witnessed a total eclipse in 1924 described silent crowds of people who solemnly greeted it.
“Now it’s just loud fun,” Schaefer said. “No one is afraid that Jupiter will come down and steal their soul.”
However, he and others said watching a solar eclipse can provide a spiritual experience, even for those who are not necessarily religious.
Former NASA engineers Jeff Stone and his wife, Susan, will witness the eclipse from their hilltop home in Kerrville, Texas.
“Her priority was to have a nice view,” Stone said. “My priority was to be as close to the centerline of the eclipse as possible. We succeeded in doing both.”
When they worked as flight controllers for the Space Shuttle program at Johnson Space Center in Houston, the couple traveled to Mexico in 1991 to experience nearly seven minutes of totality when a solar eclipse passed over the area. They’ve been eclipse chasers ever since.
On April 8, the Stones will host over a dozen visitors from as far away as Sweden to experience this year’s event.
“It’s an emotional event,” Stone said. “It touches your soul, it really does. Anytime you realize there’s something bigger than you, it gives you perspective. That power definitely has a purpose.”
In Buffalo, Horowitz said the eclipse, while a clear reminder of nature’s beauty, also provides an opportunity to reflect on the fragility of nature and find hope amidst worldly chaos and personal challenges.
“Sometimes it can get so dark,” he said. “The natural world is trying to tell us that behind the darkness, there is light.”
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