Who swallowed who - the sun or the moon?

Viewing an eclipse brings much excitement to children

It certainly wasn’t very exciting to me, since it was not the first time. For the kids, however, it was one of excitement. They had asked several questions about this so-called eclipse that was to happen and they checked outside several times to see any signs of the coming eclipse.

“Uncle Deen, would the place be dark,” my nephew asked. After answering him, another question followed: “would there be heat.”

Question after question until it finally happened and he and other kids in the house jumped and yelled as they took turns to watch it with the single pair of eclipse shades in the house.
 
I had managed to store that pair of shades since I bought it in 2006 in Accra to watch my first solar eclipse.
 
I still have memories of 2006 when we stood outside our hostel to view the eclipse. It was a feeling of confusion and anticipation that was later transformed into excitement and understanding.
 
I was then in school at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) and I joined other students at the so-called international students hostel at airport residential to view the eclipse.
 

Credit: AFP

There had been so much hype in the media and I remember clearly how newspapers, like the Daily Graphic, laid out beautiful photos on their front and other pages about the eclipse. Even photos of the President, John Agyekum Kufour watching the eclipse were published to reflect the national feeling.
 
So at that time, it meant a lot to Ghanaians. It did not seem so this time around although the media still gave it some coverage.
 
From morning till about 11:40 am when it started in Tamale, people went about their activities without any sign that something significant was happening.
 
The last time there was an eclipse in Ghana, it was a lunar eclipse and it happened on the night of Wednesday, June, 15, 2011.
 
It was described by astronomers as beautiful and the longest of its kind in 11 years.
 
“It was, particularly, a dark eclipse because the lunar disk passed through the densest central part of our planet's shadow,” Andrew Hough of the United Kingdom’s The Telegraph wrote.
 
In Ghana, not many people were aware of this beautiful phenomenon, since the media did not find it important to highlight it.
 
It was however a different scenario in the north, Tamale to be precise. There was intense drumming and dancing that evening in the various traditional suburbs, as it is an ancient belief of the people that the noise generated from this celebration brings the eclipse to a stop.
 
Some people claim that the sun might have swallowed the moon, resulting in the darkness and that after some agitation from humans on earth, the sun would rescind its decision and release the moon.
 
One could hear “zom naawuni zon-ngo bahi” echoing from the neighbourhoods, which literally means “fear God and release the moon.”
 
They also believed that the subsequent release of the moon, which results in some moonlight, is an indication that the sun had been disturbed by the noise and pleas coming from earth and had been compelled to release the moon. That is tradition for you.
 
I am not clear which of them swallowed the other on Sunday – Nov 3, 2013 – but for me, whether solar or lunar eclipse, these are further manifestations of the great order instituted by no other than the Master of creation.
 
I hope I live to witness another eclipse.

End.