Green Team Gazette: Lunar Eclipse Ahead: March 13--14, 2025

Saturday, March 8, 2025

Lunar Eclipse Ahead: March 13--14, 2025

Mark your calendar, there's a "Blood Moon" ahead. Named due to the red coloring a lunar eclipse offers, it's not as scary as it sounds, however it does come with its own folklore due to the life and times before science figured out what a lunar eclipse is:

The ancient Incas believed it was a sign of their moon goddess Mama Quilla's being attacked by a jaguar. The noise of howling dogs would help scare the jaguar away and bring back the bright full moon.
The ancient Mesopotamians hid their king during a lunar eclipse to protect him from danger of attack, parading out a faux king instead.
In India, it was seen as a bad omen. People covered their food and performed cleaning rituals as a form of protection.
Native American tribes of Hupa & Luiseno saw the moon as injured or ill, so tribal members would sing songs of healing.
The people of Togo and Benin in Africa saw it as an argument between Sun and Moon, which helped them put aside old feuds as a sign of reverence.
Old Testament Christian beliefs tie it to the wrath of God and the beginning of the end.

However, science negates it all. A lunar eclipse is when the sun, Earth, and a full moon all line up, and the moon travels in the Earth's shadow.

We have one ahead here this week during the late night of March 13th and the morning of March 14th. It will be visible in parts of every continent except Antarctica. You can check out a video visualization of the photo below at the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio.