Click to play videoNew Delhi: March 19 is the day for a partial solar eclipse, when the moon will come in between the sun and the earth on the same axis.
In India, a whole lot of myths and beliefs are associated with this event. While the even is a delight for viewers, astronomers and star gazers, it is also something to be afraid of for others.
These myths have been handed down for generations and there are many stories and folk tales associated with it.
Neetu Mishra, for instance, will not venture out during the eclipse. A receptionist at a Delhi hotel, Neetu is seven months into her pregnancy and she is scared that the event may cast a bad spell on her baby.
"My mother in-law has barred me from venturing out. I can't go out at all. If sun rays enter the house, I will have to stay clear of that spot," says Neetu.
Pundits have quite a convincing explanation about the ill-effects of this phenomenon. "If an expectant mother ventures out during the course of this event, it will cast a very bad spell on the baby. There is even the possibility that the baby will be born deformed," Satish Chandra Sharma, an astrologer, claims.
Sharma has a long list of do's and don'ts for the solar eclipse. "You should not cut, you should not stitch and you should not eat. In dire distress, if you have to travel, don't go out without an iron knife," says he.
According to him, the best thing one can do during the eclipse is "to give away alms." "There is also the norm of bathing," he says.
And if none of this works, there's still way to ward off the evil. The snake charmers can do a special ritual to evict the dark forces from mother Earth. But the rationalists don't buy all this.
"First of all, there has to be education among the common people that these kinds of things are not at all dangerous. "It's a natural phenomenon. There is nothing to worry about," Sanal Edamarku, President of Rationalist Society of India, explains.
In spite of all these superstitions, this is one celestial phenomenon that most people look forward to.
On Monday, the eclipse will begin in India at 0608 hours (IST) when the shadow of the moon first touches the earth during local sunrise at a point in the Bay of Bengal near the coast of Chennai.
It will end at 0955 (IST) when the moon's shadow finally leaves the earth at local sunset at a point in the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska. The greatest phase of the eclipse with magnitude 0.876 occurs at 0802 IST at a point in north-west of Russia.
The beginning of the eclipse will be visible only from the eastern, north-eastern and some parts of North India. The remaining parts of India will see sunrise after the eclipse begins.
Elsewhere, the eclipse will be visible in the region covering most of Alaska, eastern and Central Asia except the central parts of Japan and western parts of Russia.
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