An omen (also called portent ) is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future , often signifying the advent of change. It was commonly believed in ancient times, and still believed by some today, that omens bring divine messages from the gods.
124-415: These omens include natural phenomena, for example an eclipse , abnormal births of animals (especially humans) and behaviour of the sacrificial lamb on its way to the slaughter. Specialists, known as diviners, variously existed to interpret these omens. They would also use an artificial method, for example, a clay model of a sheep liver, to communicate with their gods in times of crisis. They would expect
248-599: A sacred grove . In Judaism , the qorban is any of a variety of sacrificial offerings described and commanded in the Torah . The most common usages are animal sacrifice ( zevah זֶבַח), zevah shelamim (the peace offering ) and olah (the " holocaust " or burnt offering ). A qorban was an animal sacrifice, such as a bull, sheep, goat, or a dove that underwent shechita (Jewish ritual slaughter). Sacrifices could also consist of grain, meal, wine, or incense. The Hebrew Bible says that Yahweh commanded
372-418: A banquet was held; in state cults, the images of honoured deities took pride of place on banqueting couches and by means of the sacrificial fire consumed their proper portion ( exta , the innards). Rome's officials and priests reclined in order of precedence alongside and ate the meat; lesser citizens may have had to provide their own. Chthonic gods such as Dis pater , the di inferi ("gods below"), and
496-488: A binary answer, either yes or no, favourable or unfavourable. They did these to predict what would happen in the future and to take action to avoid disaster. Though the word omen is usually devoid of reference to the change's nature, hence being possibly either "good" or "bad", the term is more often used in a foreboding sense, as with the word ominous . The word comes from its Latin equivalent omen , of otherwise uncertain origin. The oldest source for this practice in
620-594: A broader audience and decrease fear of the consequences of eclipses, booksellers printed broadsides explaining the event either using the science or via astrology. The American author Gene Weingarten described the tension between belief and eclipses thus: "I am a devout atheist but can't explain why the moon is exactly the right size, and gets positioned so precisely between the Earth and the sun, that total solar eclipses are perfect. It bothers me." The Graeco-Roman historian Cassius Dio , writing between AD 211–229, relates
744-675: A camel during the celebration of the Eid al-Adha , an Arabic term that means "Feast of Sacrifice", also known as al-Id al-Kabir (Great Feast), or Qurban Bayrami (Sacrifice Feast) in Turkic influenced cultures, Bakar Id (Goat Feast) in Indian subcontinent and Reraya Qurben in Indonesia. Other Muslims not on the Hajj to Mecca also participate in this sacrifice wherever they are, on the 10th day of
868-418: A common orbital plane in space. When this plane is very closely aligned with the location of an observer, the stars can be seen to pass in front of each other. The result is a type of extrinsic variable star system called an eclipsing binary . The maximum luminosity of an eclipsing binary system is equal to the sum of the luminosity contributions from the individual stars. When one star passes in front of
992-554: A communal prayer at a mosque or open air. The animal sacrifice during the Hajj is a part of nine step pilgrimage ritual. It is, states Campo, preceded by a statement to intention and body purification, inaugural circumambulation of the Kaaba seven times, running between Marwa and Safa hills, encampment at Mina, standing in Arafat, stoning the three Mina satanic pillars with at least forty nine pebbles. Thereafter, animal sacrifice, and this
1116-598: A feast) as part of worship, especially at Easter . The animal may be brought into the church before being taken out again and killed. Some villages in Greece sacrifice animals to Orthodox saints in a practice known as kourbania . Sacrifice of a lamb, or less commonly a rooster, is a common practice in Armenian Church , and the Tewahedo Church of Ethiopia and Eritrea . This tradition, called matagh ,
1240-405: A fixed interval of time. As viewed from such a location, this shadowing event is known as an eclipse. Typically the cross-section of the objects involved in an astronomical eclipse is roughly disk-shaped. The region of an object's shadow during an eclipse is divided into three parts: A total eclipse occurs when the observer is within the umbra, an annular eclipse when the observer is within
1364-534: A group historically related to the Jews, practice animal sacrifice in accordance with the Law of Moses . Christianity has long opposed all forms of animal sacrifice, and the practice's "very possibility ... has been generally rejected as unreasonable and hostile to Christian theology". Most Christian denominations believe that the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ permanently abolished animal sacrifice, primarily based on
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#17327732571661488-574: A life-force to the Otherworld pleased the gods and established a channel of communication between the worlds. Animal sacrifices could be acts of thanksgiving, appeasement, to ask for good health and fertility, or as a means of divination . It seems that some animals were offered wholly to the gods (by burying or burning), while some were shared between gods and humans (part eaten and part set aside). Archaeologists have found evidence of animal sacrifice at some Gaulish and British sanctuaries , and at
1612-404: A line can be extended from the first through the second. The latter object will block some amount of light being emitted by the former, creating a region of shadow around the axis of the line. Typically these objects are moving with respect to each other and their surroundings, so the resulting shadow will sweep through a region of space, only passing through any particular location in the region for
1736-530: A low axial tilt , making eclipses more frequent as these bodies pass through the shadow of the larger planet. Transits occur with equal frequency. It is common to see the larger moons casting circular shadows upon Jupiter's cloudtops. The eclipses of the Galilean moons by Jupiter became accurately predictable once their orbital elements were known. During the 1670s, it was discovered that these events were occurring about 17 minutes later than expected when Jupiter
1860-416: A lunar eclipse at every full moon, and a solar eclipse at every new moon. It is because of the non-planar differences that eclipses are not a common event. If both orbits were perfectly circular, then each eclipse would be the same type every month. Lunar eclipses can be viewed from the entire nightside half of the Earth. But solar eclipses, particularly total eclipses occurring at any one particular point on
1984-415: A moon passing into the shadow cast by its host planet, or a moon passing into the shadow of another moon. A binary star system can also produce eclipses if the plane of the orbit of its constituent stars intersects the observer's position. For the special cases of solar and lunar eclipses, these only happen during an " eclipse season ", the two times of each year when the plane of the Earth's orbit around
2108-469: A part of the sacrificed animal given to the needy who did not sacrifice an animal. According to The Independent , nearly 10,000,000 animals are sacrificed in Pakistan every year on Eid. Countries such as Saudi Arabia transport nearly a million animals every year for sacrifice to Mina (near Mecca). The sacrificed animals at Id al-Adha, states Clarke Brooke, include the four species considered lawful for
2232-497: A ram or a rooster is slaughered on the foundation and then their heads are buried there; the owners of the house throw coins as well as seeds of different plants on the foundation. On the occasion of the beginning of plowghing the wheat field, a chicken is slaughtered on the tail of the plough. The head of the chicken is mixed with the seed and the earth obtained from the first pass of the ploughing. Those animal sacrifices are made for soil fertility and production, prosperity, health of
2356-403: A relatively narrow track. Under the most favorable circumstances, a total solar eclipse can last for 7 minutes, 31 seconds, and can be viewed along a track that is up to 250 km wide. However, the region where a partial eclipse can be observed is much larger. The Moon's umbra will advance eastward at a rate of 1,700 km/h, until it no longer intersects the Earth's surface. During
2480-448: A reliable means of foretelling the future, was skeptical of unsolicited, personal omens. He reports the story that Licinius Crassus took ship for Syria despite the ominous call of a fig-seller – "Cauneas!" ("Caunean figs!"), which might be heard as "Cave ne eas!" ("Beware, don't go!") – and was killed on campaign. Cicero saw these events as merely coincidental; only the credulous could think them ominous. In Suetonius 's "Lives of
2604-497: A sacrificial animal may be offered; some cultures, like the ancient and modern Greeks, eat most of the edible parts of the sacrifice in a feast, and burnt the rest as an offering. Others burnt the whole animal offering, called a holocaust . Usually, the best animal or best share of the animal is the one presented for offering. Animal sacrifice should generally be distinguished from the religiously prescribed methods of ritual slaughter of animals for normal consumption as food. During
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#17327732571662728-559: A sacrificial sheep—was used in many royal services. Astrological omens were popular in Assyria in the 7th century BC. Diviners gained influence by interpreting omens and advising the king, Esarhaddon (681–669 BC), how to avoid some terrible fate. Sometimes the Assyrian king hid for a while after he put a substitute king on the throne. The court expected that the substitute king would take the evil consequences of an omen. When they believed
2852-553: A sacrilege or potential sacrilege ( piaculum ); a piaculum might also be offered as a sort of advance payment; the Arval Brethren , for instance, offered a piaculum before entering their sacred grove with an iron implement, which was forbidden, as well as after. The pig was a common victim for a piaculum . The same divine agencies who caused disease or harm also had the power to avert it, and so might be placated in advance. Divine consideration might be sought to avoid
2976-500: A solar eclipse, the Moon can sometimes perfectly cover the Sun because its apparent size is nearly the same as the Sun's when viewed from the Earth. A total solar eclipse is in fact an occultation while an annular solar eclipse is a transit . When observed at points in space other than from the Earth's surface, the Sun can be eclipsed by bodies other than the Moon. Two examples include when
3100-464: A spiritual battle between the sun and evil forces or spirits of darkness. More specifically, in Norse mythology , it is believed that there is a wolf by the name of Fenrir that is in constant pursuit of the Sun, and eclipses are thought to occur when the wolf successfully devours the divine Sun. Other Norse tribes believed that there are two wolves by the names of Sköll and Hati that are in pursuit of
3224-592: A stone in Ireland records an eclipse on November 30, 3340 B.C. Positing classical-era astronomers' use of Babylonian eclipse records mostly from the 13th century BC provides a feasible and mathematically consistent explanation for the Greek finding all three lunar mean motions (synodic, anomalistic, draconitic) to a precision of about one part in a million or better. Chinese historical records of solar eclipses date back over 3,000 years and have been used to measure changes in
3348-542: A warrior. The Kuldevi among these Rajput communities is a warrior-pativrata guardian goddess, with local legends tracing reverence for her during Rajput-Muslim wars. The tradition of animal sacrifice is being substituted with vegetarian offerings to the Goddess in temples and households around Banaras in Northern India. In some sacred groves of India , particularly in western Maharashtra , animal sacrifice
3472-416: A year (during an eclipse season ), and eclipses can occur during a period of about two months around these times. There can be from four to seven eclipses in a calendar year, which repeat according to various eclipse cycles , such as a saros . Between 1901 and 2100 there are the maximum of seven eclipses in: Excluding penumbral lunar eclipses, there are a maximum of seven eclipses in: As observed from
3596-687: A young goat were found in Cueva de la Dehesilla ( es ), a cave in Spain , related to a funerary ritual from the Middle Neolithic period, dated to between 4800 and 4000 BCE. Animal sacrifice was general among the ancient Near Eastern civilizations of Ancient Mesopotamia , Egypt and Persia , as well as the Hebrews (covered below). Unlike the Greeks, who had worked out a justification for keeping
3720-435: Is 29.7 years, an eclipse is only possible about every 15 years. On Mars , only partial solar eclipses ( transits ) are possible, because neither of its moons is large enough, at their respective orbital radii, to cover the Sun's disc as seen from the surface of the planet. Eclipses of the moons by Mars are not only possible, but commonplace, with hundreds occurring each Earth year. There are also rare occasions when Deimos
3844-515: Is a pagan practice widespread among Albanians. At the beginning of the construction of the new house, the foundation traditionally starts with prayers, in a 'lucky day', facing the Sun ( Dielli) , starting after sunrise, during the growing Moon ( Hëna ), and an animal is slaughered as a sacrifice. The practice continues with variations depending on the Albanian ethnographic area. For instance in Opojë
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3968-591: Is a part of Durga puja celebrations during the Navratri in eastern states of India. The goddess is offered sacrificial animal in this ritual in the belief that it stimulates her violent vengeance against the buffalo demon. According to Christopher Fuller , the animal sacrifice practice is rare among Hindus during Navratri, or at other times, outside the Shaktism tradition found in the eastern Indian states of West Bengal, Odisha and Assam. Further, even in these states,
4092-432: Is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three celestial objects is known as a syzygy . An eclipse is the result of either an occultation (completely hidden) or a transit (partially hidden). A "deep eclipse" (or "deep occultation")
4216-559: Is believed to stem from pre-Christian pagan rituals. Additionally, some Mayans following a form of Folk Catholicism in Mexico today still sacrifice animals in conjunction with church practices, a ritual practiced in past religions before the arrival of the Spaniards. Muslims engaged in the Hajj (pilgrimage) are obliged to sacrifice a lamb or a goat or join others in sacrificing a cow or
4340-792: Is caused by the passage of the dimmer member of the pair in front of the brighter star. The concept that an eclipsing body caused these luminosity variations was introduced by John Goodricke in 1783. Sun – Moon – Earth: Solar eclipse | annular eclipse | hybrid eclipse | partial eclipse Sun – Earth – Moon: Lunar eclipse | penumbral eclipse | partial lunar eclipse | central lunar eclipse Sun – Phobos – Mars: Transit of Phobos from Mars | Solar eclipses on Mars Sun – Deimos – Mars: Transit of Deimos from Mars | Solar eclipses on Mars Other types: Solar eclipses on Jupiter | Solar eclipses on Saturn | Solar eclipses on Uranus | Solar eclipses on Neptune | Solar eclipses on Pluto Animal sacrifice Animal sacrifice
4464-440: Is decorated with garlands and the like, and led in procession to the altar, a girl with a basket on her head containing the concealed knife leading the way. After various rituals the animal is slaughtered over the altar, as it falls all the women present "must cry out in high, shrill tones". Its blood is collected and poured over the altar. It is butchered on the spot and various internal organs, bones and other inedible parts burnt as
4588-467: Is eclipsed by Phobos. Martian eclipses have been photographed from both the surface of Mars and from orbit. Pluto , with its proportionately largest moon Charon , is also the site of many eclipses. A series of such mutual eclipses occurred between 1985 and 1990. These daily events led to the first accurate measurements of the physical parameters of both objects. Eclipses are impossible on Mercury and Venus , which have no moons. However, as seen from
4712-467: Is followed by farewell circumambulation of the Kaaba. The Muslims who are not on Hajj also perform a simplified ritual animal sacrifice. According to Campo, the animal sacrifice at the annual Islamic festival has origins in western Arabia in vogue before Islam. The animal sacrifice, states Philip Stewart, is not required by the Quran, but is based on interpretations of other Islamic texts. The Eid al-Adha
4836-571: Is major annual festival of animal sacrifice in Islam. In Indonesia alone, for example, some 800,000 animals were sacrificed in 2014 by its Muslims on the festival, but the number can be a bit lower or higher depending on the economic conditions. According to Lesley Hazleton, in Turkey about 2,500,000 sheep, cows and goats are sacrificed each year to observe the Islamic festival of animal sacrifice, with
4960-407: Is much more common to observe a lunar eclipse from a given location. A lunar eclipse lasts longer, taking several hours to complete, with totality itself usually averaging anywhere from about 30 minutes to over an hour. There are three types of lunar eclipses: penumbral, when the Moon crosses only the Earth's penumbra; partial, when the Moon crosses partially into the Earth's umbra ; and total, when
5084-445: Is not a whole number of days, successive eclipses will be visible from different parts of the world. In one saros period there are 239.0 anomalistic periods, 241.0 sidereal periods, 242.0 nodical periods, and 223.0 synodic periods. Although the orbit of the Moon does not give exact integers, the numbers of orbit cycles are close enough to integers to give strong similarity for eclipses spaced at 18.03 yr intervals. An eclipse involving
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5208-460: Is practiced to pacify female deities that are supposed to rule the groves. In India, ritual of animal sacrifice is practised in many villages before local deities or certain powerful and terrifying forms of the Devi . In this form of worship, animals, usually goats, are decapitated and the blood is offered to deity often by smearing some of it on a post outside the temple. For instance, Kandhen Budhi
5332-651: Is shared among human beings in a communal meal. The exta of bovine victims were usually stewed in a pot ( olla or aula ), while those of sheep or pigs were grilled on skewers. When the deity's portion was cooked, it was sprinkled with mola salsa (ritually prepared salted flour) and wine, then placed in the fire on the altar for the offering; the technical verb for this action was porricere . Animal sacrifices ( Albanian : therim "ritual slaughering" and fli "sacrifice") have been common practices performed by Albanians during their feasts and ritual pilgrimages on mountain tops. Animal sacrifices for new buildings
5456-535: Is the ritual killing and offering of animals, usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favour with a deity . Animal sacrifices were common throughout Europe and the Ancient Near East until the spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity , and continue in some cultures or religions today. Human sacrifice , where it existed, was always much rarer. All or only part of
5580-461: Is the reigning deity of Kantamal in Boudh district of Orissa, India. Every year, animals like goat and fowl are sacrificed before the deity on the occasion of her annual Yatra / Jatra (festival) held in the month of Aswina (September–October). The main attraction of Kandhen Budhi Yatra is Ghusuri Puja . Ghusuri means a child pig, which is sacrificed to the goddess every three years. Kandhen Budhi
5704-454: Is when a small astronomical object is behind a bigger one. The term eclipse is most often used to describe either a solar eclipse , when the Moon's shadow crosses the Earth's surface, or a lunar eclipse , when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. However, it can also refer to such events beyond the Earth–Moon system: for example, a planet moving into the shadow cast by one of its moons,
5828-519: The Fordicidia festival. Color had a general symbolic value for sacrifices. Demigods and heroes, who belonged to the heavens and the underworld, were sometimes given black-and-white victims. Robigo (or Robigus ) was given red dogs and libations of red wine at the Robigalia for the protection of crops from blight and red mildew. A sacrifice might be made in thanksgiving or as an expiation of
5952-620: The Hindu religion, for example, people often sing religious hymns for protection from the evil spirits of the eclipse, and many people of the Hindu religion refuse to eat during an eclipse to avoid the effects of the evil spirits. Hindu people living in India will also wash off in the Ganges River , which is believed to be spiritually cleansing, directly following an eclipse to clean themselves of
6076-795: The Israelites to offer offerings and sacrifices on various altars. The sacrifices were only to be offered by the hands of the Kohanim. Before building the Temple in Jerusalem , when the Israelites were in the desert , sacrifices were offered only in the Tabernacle . After building Solomon's Temple , sacrifices were allowed only there. After the Temple was destroyed, sacrifices was resumed when
6200-546: The Neolithic Revolution , early humans began to move from hunter-gatherer cultures toward agriculture , leading to the spread of animal domestication . In a theory presented in Homo Necans , mythologist Walter Burkert suggests that the ritual sacrifice of livestock may have developed as a continuation of ancient hunting rituals , as livestock replaced wild game in the food supply. Ancient Egypt
6324-586: The Second Temple was built until it was also destroyed in 70 CE. After the destruction of the Second Temple sacrifices were prohibited because there was no longer a Temple, the only place allowed by halakha for sacrifices. Offering of sacrifices was briefly reinstated during the Jewish–Roman wars of the second century CE and was continued in certain communities thereafter. The Samaritans ,
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#17327732571666448-748: The full moon ) have often been considered omens of notable births , deaths , or other significant events throughout history in many societies. One Biblical example is the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew ; in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew, the Magi are depicted as predicting the birth of Jesus after seeing the Star of Bethlehem . Eclipse This is an accepted version of this page An eclipse
6572-568: The upapurana , Kalika Purana , describes it in detail. Animal sacrifices are performed mainly at temples following the Shakti school of Hinduism where the female nature of Brahman is worshipped in the form of Kali and Durga . These traditions are followed in parts of eastern states of India at Hindu temples in Assam and West Bengal India and Nepal where goats , chickens and sometimes water buffalos are sacrificed. Animal sacrifice
6696-482: The "first fruits" were harvested. Although the grand form of sacrifice called the hecatomb (meaning 100 bulls) might in practice only involve a dozen or so, at large festivals the number of cattle sacrificed could run into the hundreds, and the numbers feasting on them well into the thousands. The enormous Hellenistic structures of the Altar of Hieron and Pergamon Altar were built for such occasions. The evidence of
6820-406: The 12th lunar month in the Islamic calendar. It is understood as a symbolic re-enactment of Abraham 's sacrifice of a ram in place of his son . Meat from this occasion is divided into three parts, one part is kept by the sacrificing family for food, the other gifted to friends and family, and the third given to the poor Muslims. The sacrificed animal is a sheep, goat, cow or camel. The feast follows
6944-646: The 19th century, on St. Martin's Day (11 November) in rural Ireland a rooster, goose or sheep would be slaughtered and some of its blood sprinkled on the threshold of the house. It was offered to Saint Martin , and was eaten as part of a feast. Bull sacrifices at the time of the Lughnasa festival were recorded as late as the 18th century at Cois Fharraige in Ireland (where they were offered to Crom Dubh ) and at Loch Maree in Scotland (where they were offered to Saint Máel Ruba ). Animal sacrifice, or blót ,
7068-471: The Ancient Near East came from Mesopotamian practice attested at the first half of the 2nd millennium BC . It was vigorously pursued by the Assyrian kings, Esarhaddon and his son, Ashurbanipal in the 7th century BC . Omens were interpreted by several methods—e.g., liver divination, lecanomancy , and libanomancy . Hepatoscopy —observing irregularities and abnormalities of the entrails of
7192-475: The Caesars", the deaths of various emperors are presaged by omens and dreams; the emperor Caligula , for example, dreamt that he stood before the throne of Jupiter , king of the gods, and Jupiter kicked him down from heaven to earth; Caligula ignored the premonition and was assassinated the next day. In the field of astrology , solar and lunar eclipses (along with the appearance of comets and to some extent
7316-486: The Earth's rate of spin. The first person to give scientific explanation on eclipses was Anaxagoras [c500BC - 428BC]. Anaxagoras stated that the Moon shines by reflected light from the Sun. In 5th century AD, solar and lunar eclipses were scientifically explained by Aryabhata , in his treatise Aryabhatiya . Aryabhata states that the Moon and planets shine by reflected sunlight and explains eclipses in terms of shadows cast by and falling on Earth. Aryabhata provides
7440-541: The Earth's surface, are very rare events that can be many decades apart. The term is derived from the ancient Greek noun ἔκλειψις ( ékleipsis ), which means 'the abandonment', 'the downfall', or 'the darkening of a heavenly body', which is derived from the verb ἐκλείπω ( ekleípō ) which means 'to abandon', 'to darken', or 'to cease to exist', a combination of prefix ἐκ- ( ek- ), from preposition ἐκ ( ek ), 'out', and of verb λείπω ( leípō ), 'to be absent'. For any two objects in space,
7564-432: The Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in front of the Sun. The type of solar eclipse event depends on the distance of the Moon from the Earth during the event. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Earth intersects the umbra portion of the Moon's shadow. When the umbra does not reach the surface of the Earth, the Sun is only partially occulted, resulting in an annular eclipse. Partial solar eclipses occur when
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#17327732571667688-536: The Earth, both have been observed to transit across the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus occur in pairs separated by an interval of eight years, but each pair of events happen less than once a century. According to NASA, the next pair of Venus transits will occur on December 10, 2117, and December 8, 2125. Transits of Mercury are much more common, occurring 13 times each century, on average. A binary star system consists of two stars that orbit around their common centre of mass . The movements of both stars lie on
7812-618: The Greek author Herodotus ( c. 484 – c. 425 BCE ), the Scythians sacrificed various kinds of livestock, though the most prestigious offering was considered to be the horse. The pig, on the other hand, was never offered in sacrifice, and apparently the Scythians were loath to keep swine within their lands. Herodotus describes the Scythian manner of sacrifice as follows: The victim stands with its fore-feet tied, and
7936-435: The Hajj sacrifice: sheep, goats, camels and cattle, and additionally, cow-like animals initialing the water buffalo, domesticated banteng and yaks. Many are brought in from north Africa and parts of Asia. Other occasions when Muslims perform animal sacrifice include the ' aqiqa , when a child is seven days old, is shaved and given a name. It is believed that the animal sacrifice binds the child to Islam and offers protection to
8060-641: The Irish site Uisneach . Accounts of Celtic animal sacrifice come from Roman and Greek writers. Julius Caesar and Strabo wrote of the Gauls burning animal sacrifices in a large wickerwork figure, known as a wicker man , while Pliny the Elder wrote of druids performing a ' ritual of oak and mistletoe ' which involved sacrificing two white bulls. Some animal sacrifice or ritual slaughter continued among Celtic peoples long after they converted to Christianity. Until
8184-504: The Moon by refracted light has a red hue, thus the phrase 'Blood Moon' is often found in descriptions of such lunar events as far back as eclipses are recorded. Records of solar eclipses have been kept since ancient times. Eclipse dates can be used for chronological dating of historical records. A Syrian clay tablet, in the Ugaritic language, records a solar eclipse which occurred on March 5, 1223, B.C., while Paul Griffin argues that
8308-402: The Moon crosses entirely into the Earth's umbra. Total lunar eclipses pass through all three phases. Even during a total lunar eclipse, however, the Moon is not completely dark. Sunlight refracted through the Earth's atmosphere enters the umbra and provides a faint illumination. Much as in a sunset, the atmosphere tends to more strongly scatter light with shorter wavelengths, so the illumination of
8432-422: The Sun and the Moon, known by the names of Sol and Mani, and these tribes believed that an eclipse occurs when one of the wolves successfully eats either the Sun or the Moon. In most types of mythologies and certain religions, eclipses were seen as a sign that the gods were angry and that danger was soon to come, so people often altered their actions in an effort to dissuade the gods from unleashing their wrath. In
8556-522: The Sun crosses with the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth and the line defined by the intersecting planes points near the Sun. The type of solar eclipse that happens during each season (whether total, annular, hybrid, or partial) depends on apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon. If the orbit of the Earth around the Sun and the Moon's orbit around the Earth were both in the same plane with each other, then eclipses would happen every month. There would be
8680-405: The Sun, Earth, and Moon can occur only when they are nearly in a straight line, allowing one to be hidden behind another, viewed from the third. Because the orbital plane of the Moon is tilted with respect to the orbital plane of the Earth (the ecliptic ), eclipses can occur only when the Moon is close to the intersection of these two planes (the nodes ). The Sun, Earth and nodes are aligned twice
8804-460: The anecdote that Emperor Claudius considered it necessary to prevent disturbance among the Roman population by publishing a prediction for a solar eclipse which would fall on his birthday anniversary [1 August in the year AD 45]. In this context, Cassius Dio provides a detailed explanation of solar and lunar eclipses. Typically in mythology, eclipses were understood to be one variation or another of
8928-451: The animals, etc. According to an old Albanian custom practiced until recently in various villages in Tomorr , Mirdita , and perhaps also in other areas, from the middle of May families with a lot of cattle slaughtered young cattle as sacrifices in order to make the earth fertile, so that the cattle would not be harmed during the summer and would have abundant milk during the harvest time in
9052-436: The antumbra of Deimos crossing Mars , or Phobos entering Mars's penumbra. The first contact occurs when the eclipsing object's disc first starts to impinge on the light source; second contact is when the disc moves completely within the light source; third contact when it starts to move out of the light; and fourth or last contact when it finally leaves the light source's disc entirely. For spherical bodies, when
9176-500: The antumbra, and a partial eclipse when the observer is within the penumbra. During a lunar eclipse only the umbra and penumbra are applicable, because the antumbra of the Sun-Earth system lies far beyond the Moon. Analogously, Earth's apparent diameter from the viewpoint of the Moon is nearly four times that of the Sun and thus cannot produce an annular eclipse. The same terms may be used analogously in describing other eclipses, e.g.,
9300-459: The best edible parts of the sacrifice for the assembled humans to eat, in these cultures the whole animal was normally placed on the fire by the altar and burned, or sometimes it was buried. Worship in ancient Greek religion typically consisted of sacrificing domestic animals at the altar with hymn and prayer. The altar was outside any temple building, and might not be associated with a temple at all. The animal, which should be perfect of its kind,
9424-407: The bird's cries and the way or direction it flew, the augurs attempted to predict the future. They also saw lightning or thunder as omens, sent from Zeus, and observed the direction in which they saw or heard them. Omens represented the divine will and the decisions of the gods, their positioning opposite human endeavors, and were aimed at being understood by sensitive receivers of the time, who brought
9548-548: The cheapest mammal), and poultry (but rarely other birds or fish). Horses and asses are seen on some vases in the Geometric style (900–750 BCE ), but are very rarely mentioned in literature; they were relatively late introductions to Greece, and it has been suggested that Greek preferences in this matter go very far back. The Greeks liked to believe that the animal was glad to be sacrificed, and interpreted various behaviours as showing this. Divination by examining parts of
9672-425: The child from evil. Killing of animals by dhabihah is ritual slaughter rather than sacrifice. Practices of Hindu animal sacrifice are mostly associated with Shaktism , Shaiva Agamas and in currents of folk Hinduism called Kulamarga strongly rooted in local tribal traditions. Animal sacrifices were carried out in ancient times in India. Most Puranas and other scriptures forbid animal sacrifice though
9796-407: The collective shades of the departed ( di Manes ) were given dark, fertile victims in nighttime rituals. Animal sacrifice usually took the form of a holocaust or burnt offering, and there was no shared banquet, as "the living cannot share a meal with the dead". Ceres and other underworld goddesses of fruitfulness were sometimes offered pregnant female animals; Tellus was given a pregnant cow at
9920-427: The combination of a raven on the right and a crow on the left was favourable. Augurs also studied the behaviour of domesticated, sacred chickens before embarking on important enterprises, such as a senatorial meeting, the passage of a new law, or a battle. These formal "divine consultations" by augurs are known as "taking the auspices". Haruspices examined the liver, lungs and entrails of animals sacrifice to interpret
10044-543: The computation and the size of the eclipsed part during an eclipse. Indian computations were very accurate that 18th-century French scientist Guillaume Le Gentil , during a visit to Pondicherry, India, found the Indian computations of the duration of the lunar eclipse of 30 August 1765 to be short by only 41 seconds, whereas Le Gentil's charts were long by 68 seconds. By the 1600s, European astronomers were publishing books with diagrams explaining how lunar and solar eclipses occurred. In order to disseminate this information to
10168-490: The crew of Apollo 12 observed the Earth to eclipse the Sun in 1969 and when the Cassini probe observed Saturn to eclipse the Sun in 2006. Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow. This happens only during a full moon , when the Moon is on the far side of the Earth from the Sun. Unlike a solar eclipse, an eclipse of the Moon can be observed from nearly an entire hemisphere. For this reason it
10292-507: The danger was over, they executed the substitute king and the true king resumed the throne. The observations of omens were recorded into series. Some of them dated back to the first half of the 2nd millennium BC, and these were arranged as conditional statement later (if such and such is the case, then such and such is the result). This belief of omens later spread out around the Near East and beyond when clay models of sheep livers used for
10416-523: The deity's portion of the offering, while the meat is removed to be prepared for the participants to eat; the leading figures tasting it on the spot. The temple usually kept the skin, to sell to tanners. The fact that the humans got more use from the sacrifice than the deity had not escaped the Greeks, and is often the subject of humour in Greek comedy . The animals used are, in order of preference, bull or ox, cow, sheep (the most common), goat, pig (with piglet
10540-408: The divine charisma to become intermediaries, channels between the world of gods and humans. Even since Homeric times, the Greeks paid special attention to these signs: when they saw vultures from the left, another symbol of Zeus, they considered it a bad omen. The cry of a heron or lightning to the right marked positive and promising omen. In the Greek territory, seers also judged good and bad omens from
10664-494: The diviners to learn the craft was found in Boghazkoi , Ugarit , Megiddo , and Hazor . Letters from the city Mari dated at the latest from the 18th century showed that these divinatory practices were not limited to the royal court, but also played an important role in everyday life of the people. An oionos (omen) was defined in antiquity as the carnivorous vulture, especially a prophetic bird. By careful observation of
10788-528: The earliest known sacred centers in Europe, evidence of the sacrifice of sheep, cattle and swine has been uncovered by excavations, and it is indicated that ritual sacrifice may have been common across Italy around 3000 BCE and afterwards. At the Minoan settlement of Phaistos in ancient Crete , excavations have revealed basins for animal sacrifice dating to the period 2000 to 1700 BCE. However, remains of
10912-624: The end of the Copper Age in 3000 BCE , animal sacrifice had become a common practice across many cultures, and appeared to have become more generally restricted to domestic livestock. At Gath , archeological evidence indicates that the Canaanites imported sacrificial sheep and goats from Egypt rather than selecting from their own livestock. At the Monte d'Accoddi in Sardinia , one of
11036-459: The entrails of a sacrificed animal, comprising in Cicero 's enumeration the gall bladder ( fel ), liver ( iecur ), heart ( cor ), and lungs ( pulmones ). The exta were exposed for litatio (divine approval) as part of Roman liturgy, but were "read" in the context of the disciplina Etrusca . As a product of Roman sacrifice, the exta and blood are reserved for the gods, while the meat (viscera)
11160-479: The evil spirits. In early Judaism and Christianity , eclipses were viewed as signs from God, and some eclipses were seen as a display of God's greatness or even signs of cycles of life and death. However, more ominous eclipses such as a blood moon were believed to be a divine sign that God would soon destroy their enemies. The gas giant planets have many moons and thus frequently display eclipses. The most striking involve Jupiter , which has four large moons and
11284-602: The existence of such practices is clear in some ancient Greek literature, especially in Homer 's epics. Throughout the poems, the use of the ritual is apparent at banquets where meat is served, in times of danger or before some important endeavor to gain the favor of the gods. For example, in Homer's Odyssey Eumaeus sacrifices a pig with prayer for his unrecognizable master Odysseus. However, in Homer's Iliad , which partly reflects very early Greek civilization, not every banquet of
11408-550: The feet of several human burials. At a cemetery uncovered at Hierakonpolis and dated to 3000 BCE , the remains of a much wider variety of animals were found, including non-domestic species such as baboons and hippopotami , which may have been sacrificed in honor of powerful former citizens or buried near their former owners. According to Herodotus , later Dynastic Egyptian animal sacrifice became restricted to livestock – sheep, cattle, swine and geese – with sets of rituals and rules to describe each type of sacrifice. By
11532-480: The festival season is one where significant animal sacrifices are observed. In some Shakta Hindu communities, the slaying of buffalo demon and victory of Durga is observed with a symbolic sacrifice instead of animal sacrifice. Animal sacrifice en masse occurs during the three-day-long Gadhimai festival in Nepal. In 2009 it was speculated that more than 250,000 animals were killed while 5 million devotees attended
11656-418: The festival. However, this practise was later banned in 2015. The Rajput of Rajasthan worship their weapons and horses on Navratri , and formerly offered a sacrifice of a goat to a goddess revered as Kuldevi – a practice that continues in some places. The ritual requires slaying of the animal with a single stroke. In the past this ritual was considered a rite of passage into manhood and readiness as
11780-597: The gods failed to keep their side of the bargain, the offered sacrifice would be withheld. In the imperial period, sacrifice was withheld following Trajan 's death because the gods had not kept the Emperor safe for the stipulated period. In Pompeii , the Genius of the living emperor was offered a bull: presumably a standard practise in Imperial cult, though minor offerings (incense and wine) were also made. The exta were
11904-456: The gods placated with the appropriate sacrifice and rituals. The interpretation and expiation of omens that suggested a threat to the State was a serious business. In 217 BC the consul Gaius Flaminius "disregarded his horse's collapse, the chickens , and yet other omens, before his disaster at Lake Trasimene". Certain natural events, particularly lightning strikes and thunder, could be ominous for
12028-451: The house throws there unwashed wool. These things are to remain buried in the foundation of the house that is being built. The relatives of the house owner throw money on the foundation of the house as well, but that money is taken by the craftsman who builds the house. In Dibra a ram is slaughered at the foundation, and the head of the ram is placed on the foundation. In the Lezha highlands
12152-482: The inconvenient delays of a journey, or encounters with banditry, piracy and shipwreck, with due gratitude to be rendered on safe arrival or return. In times of great crisis, the Senate could decree collective public rites, in which Rome's citizens, including women and children, moved in procession from one temple to the next, supplicating the gods. Extraordinary circumstances called for extraordinary sacrifice: in one of
12276-428: The location of the shadow on the Earth and the angle in which it is moving. An eclipse cycle takes place when eclipses in a series are separated by a certain interval of time. This happens when the orbital motions of the bodies form repeating harmonic patterns. A particular instance is the saros , which results in a repetition of a solar or lunar eclipse every 6,585.3 days, or a little over 18 years. Because this
12400-529: The many crises of the Second Punic War , Jupiter Capitolinus was promised every animal born that spring (see ver sacrum ), to be rendered after five more years of protection from Hannibal and his allies. The "contract" with Jupiter is exceptionally detailed. All due care would be taken of the animals. If any died or were stolen before the scheduled sacrifice, they would count as already sacrificed, since they had already been consecrated. Normally, if
12524-512: The mountains. Such a ritual burial ceremony was also found among other Balkan peoples, and it has been interpreted as a trace of the cult of an agricultural deity, for it was a sacrifice that allowed the renewal of the products of the soil, giving force to the vegetation of the fields, trees and vines. There is evidence that ancient Celtic people sacrificed animals, almost always livestock or working animals, as part of ancient Celtic religion . The idea seems to have been that ritually transferring
12648-698: The native Pre-Hellenic religion and that many of the Olympian deities may come from the Proto-Greeks who overran the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula in the late third millennium BCE. In the Hellenistic period after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, several new philosophical movements began to question the ethics of animal sacrifice. According to the unique account by
12772-407: The occulting object is smaller than the star, the length ( L ) of the umbra's cone-shaped shadow is given by: where R s is the radius of the star, R o is the occulting object's radius, and r is the distance from the star to the occulting object. For Earth , on average L is equal to 1.384 × 10 km , which is much larger than the Moon's semimajor axis of 3.844 × 10 km. Hence
12896-420: The omen, I hold to it"); the consul L Aemilius Paullus , when about to embark on his campaign against King Perseus , heard his daughter say that her dog Persa had died; given the similarity of the names and the death of the dog, he took this as a sign that Perseus would be defeated – which he was. The orator and statesman Cicero , though an augur himself, and apparently convinced that in capable hands, it offered
13020-405: The other, the luminosity of the system is seen to decrease. The luminosity returns to normal once the two stars are no longer in alignment. The first eclipsing binary star system to be discovered was Algol , a star system in the constellation Perseus . Normally this star system has a visual magnitude of 2.1. However, every 2.867 days the magnitude decreases to 3.4 for more than nine hours. This
13144-404: The planet's orbit, due to their higher inclination between the orbits of the moon and the orbital plane of the planet. The moon Titan , for example, has an orbital plane tilted about 1.6° to Saturn's equatorial plane. But Saturn has an axial tilt of nearly 27°. The orbital plane of Titan only crosses the line of sight to the Sun at two points along Saturn's orbit. As the orbital period of Saturn
13268-498: The princes begins with a sacrifice. These sacrificial practices, described in these pre-Homeric eras, share commonalities to the 8th century forms of sacrificial rituals. Furthermore, throughout the poem, special banquets are held whenever gods indicated their presence by some sign or success in war. Before setting out for Troy, this type of animal sacrifice is offered. Odysseus offers Zeus a sacrificial ram in vain. The occasions of sacrifice in Homer's epic poems may shed some light onto
13392-412: The public gaze. Deities of the upper heavens required white, infertile victims of their own sex: Juno a white heifer (possibly a white cow); Jupiter a white, castrated ox ( bos mas ) for the annual oath-taking by the consuls . Di superi with strong connections to the earth, such as Mars, Janus, Neptune and various genii – including the Emperor's – were offered fertile victims. After the sacrifice,
13516-641: The public or state, or only for the individual who saw or heard them. When a thunderclap interrupted his election as consul, Marcellus gave up his candidacy. Thereafter he travelled in an enclosed litter when on important business, to avoid sight of any bad omens that might affect his plans. Many Romans believed that particular words, phrases or incidents might carry prophetic content aimed at particular individuals who witnessed or heard them. Such "private" omens could be accepted, and their benefits secured (or their threat averted) by use of countersigns, or verbal formulas such as accepit omen, arripuit omen ("I accept
13640-400: The sacrificed animal is placed on the foundation, with its head placed towards the east, where the Sun rises. In Brataj the blood of the sacrificed animal is poured during the slaughter in the corner that was on the east side, where the Sun rises; in order for the house to stand and for good luck, the owner of the house throws silver or golden coins in the same corner of the house; the lady of
13764-441: The sacrificed animal was much less important than in Roman or Etruscan religion , or Near Eastern religions, but was practiced , especially of the liver, and as part of the cult of Apollo. Generally, the Greeks put more faith in observing the behaviour of birds. For a smaller and simpler offering, a grain of incense could be thrown on the sacred fire, and outside the cities farmers made simple sacrificial gifts of plant produce as
13888-465: The sacrificing priest stands behind the victim, and by pulling the end of the cord he throws the beast down; and as the victim falls, he calls upon the god to whom he is sacrificing, and then at once throws a noose round its neck, and putting a small stick into it he turns it round and so strangles the animal, without either lighting a fire or making any first offering from the victim or pouring any libation over it: and when he has strangled it and flayed off
14012-484: The skin, he proceeds to boil it. [...] Then when the flesh is boiled, the sacrificer takes a first offering of the flesh and of the vital organs and casts it in front of him. Herodotus goes on to describe the human sacrifice of prisoners, conducted in a different manner. The most potent offering in Ancient Roman religion was animal sacrifice, typically of domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs. Each
14136-664: The teaching in the Epistle to the Hebrews that Jesus was the " Lamb of God " to whom all ancient sacrifices pointed. Most Christians believe that the "bloodless" sacrifice of the Eucharist , or Lord's Supper, entirely replaces the Old Testament system of sacrifices. Consequently, animal sacrifice is rarely practiced in Christianity. A handful of rural Christian communities sacrifice animals (which are then consumed in
14260-436: The time difference could be computed by accurately observing the local time of the eclipse. The time difference gives the longitude of the observer because every hour of difference corresponded to 15° around the Earth's equator. This technique was used, for example, by Giovanni D. Cassini in 1679 to re-map France . On the other three gas giants ( Saturn , Uranus and Neptune ) eclipses only occur at certain periods during
14384-537: The umbral cone of the Earth can completely envelop the Moon during a lunar eclipse . If the occulting object has an atmosphere, however, some of the luminosity of the star can be refracted into the volume of the umbra. This occurs, for example, during an eclipse of the Moon by the Earth—;producing a faint, ruddy illumination of the Moon even at totality. On Earth, the shadow cast during an eclipse moves very approximately at 1 km per sec. This depends on
14508-412: The unwillingness or willingness of a victim to approach the altar and by the state of its offal when slaughtered. In ancient Roman religion , augurs interpreted the flights of birds to ascertain the will of the gods, in response to specific questions. Their system was complex; for example, while a bird-sign on the left was usually favourable (auspicious) and one on the right unfavourable (inauspicious),
14632-459: The view of the gods as members of society, rather than as external entities, indicating social ties. Sacrificial rituals played a major role in forming the relationship between humans and the divine. It has been suggested that the Chthonic deities, distinguished from Olympic deities by typically being offered the holocaust mode of sacrifice, where the offering is wholly burnt, may be remnants of
14756-404: The viewer is inside the penumbra. The eclipse magnitude is the fraction of the Sun's diameter that is covered by the Moon. For a total eclipse, this value is always greater than or equal to one. In both annular and total eclipses, the eclipse magnitude is the ratio of the angular sizes of the Moon to the Sun. Solar eclipses are relatively brief events that can only be viewed in totality along
14880-541: The will of the gods, again in response to clear and specific proposals. Some omens came in the form of prodigies – unnatural, aberrant or unusual phenomena such as meteor showers , hermaphrodite births, or " blood rain ", any of which could signify that the gods had somehow been angered. The meaning and import of reported prodigies were officially debated and decided by the Roman senate , with advice from religious experts. Threatening signs could then be officially expiated and
15004-624: Was an important ritual in Old Norse religion . The blood was sprinkled on altars, idols and the walls of temples . A blót was made at seasonal festivals as well as at funerals, before battles and perilous journeys, or after the conclusion of business between traders. In the 11th century, Adam of Bremen wrote that human and animal sacrifices were made at the Temple at Gamla Uppsala in Sweden. He wrote that every ninth year, nine men and nine of every animal were sacrificed and their bodies hung in
15128-610: Was at the forefront of domestication, and some of the earliest archeological evidence suggesting animal sacrifice comes from Egypt. However, animal sacrifice was not a central practice of Egyptian religion, but was rather a peripherical occurrence that happened away from worshippers. The oldest Egyptian burial sites containing animal remains originate from the Badari culture of Upper Egypt , which flourished between 4400 and 4000 BCE. Sheep and goats were found buried in their own graves at one site, while at another site gazelles were found at
15252-491: Was on the far side of the Sun. Ole Rømer deduced that the delay was caused by the time needed for light to travel from Jupiter to the Earth. This was used to produce the first estimate of the speed of light . The timing of the Jovian satellite eclipses was also used to calculate an observer's longitude upon the Earth. By knowing the expected time when an eclipse would be observed at a standard longitude (such as Greenwich ),
15376-431: Was the best specimen of its kind, cleansed, clad in sacrificial regalia and garlanded; the horns of oxen might be gilded. Sacrifice sought the harmonisation of the earthly and divine , so the victim must seem willing to offer its own life on behalf of the community; it must remain calm and be quickly and cleanly dispatched. Sacrifice to deities of the heavens ( di superi , "gods above") was performed in daylight, and under
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