{"id":612296,"date":"2026-09-02T13:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T13:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612296\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T13:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T13:46:10","slug":"apod-2026-september-2-solar-eclipses-and-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612296\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 September 2 &#8211; Solar Eclipses and Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplanation: Pretend you have never heard of a solar eclipse. The Sun\u2019s behavior has been predictable your whole life. One day, you witness the sky transform as it does in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DcBum3zI7YL\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">today\u2019s spliced image<\/a> spanning two hours of <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2026-august-13-total-solar-eclipse-over-spain\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the August 12, 2026 solar eclipse<\/a>. The Sun disappears, leaving behind a bright, empty ring. What would you think had happened? Humans have interpreted eclipses in countless ways throughout <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/eclipses\/history\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">history<\/a>, embedding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.exploratorium.edu\/eclipse\/eclipse-stories-from-around-the-world\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">beliefs<\/a> about connection, rebirth, or danger into culture. \u201cEclipse\u201d comes from the Greek word \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/word\/eclipse\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00e9kleipsis<\/a>\u201d meaning \u201cabandonment\u201d. In ancient Greece, the solar eclipse marked the anger of the gods and the Sun abandoning humanity. To <a href=\"https:\/\/www.exploratorium.edu\/eclipse\/navajo-understanding-eclipses\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Din\u00e9 people<\/a>, this celestial alignment is a time of renewal. Out of respect and to avoid the danger of sunlight, the Din\u00e9 stay inside until the Sun and Moon separate. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/perspectives\/sikien-koutammakou\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Batammariba people of Benin and Togo<\/a> believe that the Sun and Moon fight during an eclipse, so the community encourages peace among themselves. Eclipses are an example of the longstanding connection between astronomy and society.<\/p>\n<p>Gallery: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/media\/set\/?set=a.1048378671224043&amp;type=3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12<\/a><br \/>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: empty space\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: Pretend you have never heard of a solar eclipse. The Sun\u2019s behavior has been predictable your whole&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[243471,61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-612296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-apod","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}