Solar Eclipse Myth Alive & Well

[Unregistered]

This belief is strong in hispanic communites. In my region of Texas, we only use the safety pin to fasten a key, because according to those who believe this, the key is what protects the fetus from harm. When my mother was pregnant with me, there was en eclipse (not sure whether full or partial) but when I was born, I came out fine (and my mother will swear it was because she wore the key) and there were several babies who were born with a cleft lip. My mother and grandmother will use this as irrefutable evidence that a key should be worn during an eclipse, especially since multiple babies had the same problem. I just dismiss it as craziness, kinda like the "mal de ojo" sickness a baby gets. Anyone ever heard of that? It involves rubbing an egg on a feverish baby....Hopefully these crazy beliefs will fade out with time and science class.

[pulsarX]

In India this belief is very prevalent. Safety pins ain't used though,

[Occam]

Some beliefs are hard to shake. The Chinese habit of loudly banging gongs and drums during solar eclipses is one. The reasoning is hard to argue with.
An eclipse is caused by a dragon trying to swallow the sun.
The gongs and drums frighten the dragon into releasing the sun.
Any argument against this idea can be countered by the reasoning that it ALWAYS works.

Comets are harbingers of evil. It's an incontrovertible fact that whenever a comet has appeared in the skies, terrible things have happened.
This would only be significant, of course, if terrible things did NOT happen in the absence of comets.

[Noclevername]

This rock keeps away tigers!

It must work, there's never been a tiger around here...

[BigDon]

Well, its still better than the quaint Nigerian custom of putting a woman to death for bearing twins. (The twins gotta go too BTW) A friend of mine who was a headmistress at a all girls school in Lagos always came back to the states to give birth for just that reason. The citizenship issue was secondary.

[Peter Wilson]

I keep hearing about Nigerian widows who leave behind $26,000,000 in unclaimed bank accounts.

Can't help but wonder if the twin-thing is just a ruse to go after their money?

[BigDon]

Naaww, its the obvious logic of "One soul per conception" bit. That means one of the twins is souless and therefore an abomination. Jeez Pete, smart guy like you should have seen that.

[Peter Wilson]

So you have to kill both, to make sure you get the one that is the abomination?

[BigDon]

Sure!

Killing just gave birth women and new borns is much more noble and safe than allowing an abomination to survive.

[zenbudda]

another interesting myth amongst the mexican-american (and in most cases, just plain ol mexican) communities where i grew up was that if you stared at a rainbow, you'd get a sty (sp?) on your eyelid.

[zenbudda]

oh, and there's also "ojo" (pronounced o-ho with short o's). whenever you are in a house around a newborn/infant, you can't just look at the baby, you have to touch, otherwise you'll get it sick. ojo is eye in mexican. i think this is similar to the "evil eye" myth.

[Peter Wilson]

Sure!

Killing just gave birth women and new borns is much more noble and safe than allowing an abomination to survive.

I have an evil-twin brother (people mistake us all the time)--well I call him that, anyway (heh-heh).

But how do I know which one of us is the good one and which the bad?

Edit: On 2nd thought, please don't answer that one!

[HenrikOlsen]

Which one is the guy with the gun?

[BigDon]

another interesting myth amongst the mexican-american (and in most cases, just plain ol mexican) communities where i grew up was that if you stared at a rainbow, you'd get a sty (sp?) on your eyelid.

Now Budda, according to my stepfather, who was raised in rural Louisianna, stys are caused by urinating in the street.

(Had fun with that one when my oldest daughter came down with a sty a couple of weeks back.)

[Unregistered]

This has always been a talked about thing in a hispanic culture. I never put much interest into it until now. I am 3 months pregnant and so is my cousin. The pin wearing is more than just the lip it is also about deformaties a baby can be caused by it. Unfortunatly we had an eclipse this past Tuesday, my cousin was unaware and did not wear the safety pin. Sad to say, she lost her baby. Now am not saying it was due to the eclipse but it might have contributed to it.

[01101001]

Now am not saying it was due to the eclipse but it might have contributed to it.

Wikipedia: Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan

Let science be your candle.

[Jhalak]

Can any one tell me what is this safety pin and where to were it. Thanks.

[Gillianren]

Can any one tell me what is this safety pin and where to were it. Thanks.

Well, the "where to wear it" is "don't bother." It doesn't do anything. Logic would indicate that it's a fairly new piece of folk belief, however, since the safety pin is pretty new, historically speaking.

[Glutomoto]

This wikipedia page will tell you what the saftey pin is, and has a picture. It goes on to say there was an ancient version invented by the Mycenaeans during the 14th century B.C. But that one was lost in time until the modern reinvention in 1849.

[justintree]

It is really sad -

I have a 19th century sex manual (The creation of a new life.) That explains all of the things a woman should and should not do while pregnant, and all the dire consequences. Most important, was keeping thoughts pure and high-minded - for example, if you wanted the child to be an artist, you should spend much of the pregnancy studying art.

So if your child had a clef lip, or any other deformity, it was clearly the fault of the mother. Maternal twins were once thought to be proof of adultry. The guilt imposed upon mothers whenever a child is born that is less than perfect was, and still is tragic.

That said, an eclipse does present a unique gravitational/electromagnetic environment, and it would be interesting to determine if a statistical link of some kind could be established between eclipses and odd cell division. (Obviously, the likely answer is a great big NO.)

Sorry for diggin up an old post...but that sounds like it may be somewhat reasonable. We know, scientifically, that a woman's experiences can have an effect on her baby while pregnant (now I'm not agreeing with stuff like not having your craving = weird birthmarks, I'm referring to situations like emotions resulting in different chemical releases that end up affecting the little one).

Could it not be possible that a visual connection exists between baby and child? Have there been scientific studies made?

I'm not much of a biology buff, so if I'm wrong feel free to rip my previous paragraphs to shreds...(woo physics!)

[Van Rijn]

Can any one tell me what is this safety pin and where to were it. Thanks.

Just noticed this. It's probably too late (I doubt you're still on the forum) but if you are, could you tell me: Are you taking this safety pin thing seriously, and if so, why?

[ravens_cry]

I think a lot of superstitions come from the difficulty of telling the difference between something happening at the same time or one after the other, and there been a true correlation. That is why we have scientists after all. But science is expensive, both in time and materials, a hunter gatherer would be unlikely to have the free time to test repeatedly if say scaring a pregnant woman would harm the baby. That and the power of gossip and language and you have the makings of a myth.

[narender]

Not going in the story in particular...but I do believe in effect of gravitational effects on body(in space for sure ) here..
What kinda ? well have yet to explore..(may be any of you have better idea of the intensity ) but there is a significant of things which do affected by it and there is no need to call it superstitiousness ..yeah when people do certain religious acts that might be a different case..but scientifically the concept has all solid foundation to explore..

[pghnative]

...but I do believe in effect of gravitational effects on body(in space for sure ) here..
<snip>..(may be any of you have better idea of the intensity )..

I suspect that if you do the math, you'll learn that there is no significant gravitation difference between

a)a new moon wherein the moon eclipses the sun
b)a new moon wherein the moon passes just a little north (or south) of the sun, and therefore doesn't eclipse it

Electromagnetic effects also seem unimportant. After all, which of the following makes a bigger difference (electromagnetically) to a human:

1) being involved in a solar eclipse (in which the sun's electromagnetic effects are blocked for ~ 2 min) or
2)being involved in nighttime (in which the sun's electromagnetic effects are blocked for ~ 12 hours)

[Sean Clayden]

Absolute ********. What happens happens, you cant have any predictive messages. Its random, boy or girl ? If you can predict it you would be worth millions........(in china)

[LordVido]

I suspect that if you do the math, you'll learn that there is no significant gravitation difference between

a)a new moon wherein the moon eclipses the sun
b)a new moon wherein the moon passes just a little north (or south) of the sun, and therefore doesn't eclipse it

Electromagnetic effects also seem unimportant. After all, which of the following makes a bigger difference (electromagnetically) to a human:

1) being involved in a solar eclipse (in which the sun's electromagnetic effects are blocked for ~ 2 min) or
2)being involved in nighttime (in which the sun's electromagnetic effects are blocked for ~ 12 hours)

I'm glad you commented on this, because I was about to, until I got to the end of the thread and saw that you already have.

I'll, though, go a little further. An eclipse only has to do with line of sight. The moon's orbit is slightly tilted to the Earth's orbit around the Sun. The moon passes between the sun and earth EVERY Month but only sometimes (about every year and a half) will you get a total solar eclipse, and since the moons shadow is so small, it is only seen in totality on a small area of the earth.

In any case there are times when the moon is closer or farther, whether during an eclipse or not (an annular eclipse is a visible example). What I'm getting at is you have a similar gravitational line-up EVERY month. If you visit the inverse square law of the effects of gravity, the difference is negligible. Even if this wasn't the case, though, the moon may or may not be closer at any given time the moon is between the earth and sun, regardless of a "line of sight event" we call an eclipse. So IF gravity did play a role, it would not be because of an eclipse, but because of its distance from earth.

One more thing, we are much closer to the center of the Earth than the moon and the Earth has more mass, therefore the Earth's gravity should have a lot more effect on us . . . .

-LV

By the way I'm new to this forum, so Hi!!!

[Gillianren]

Welcome aboard! Read the rules and stay awhile.

[Halcyon Dayz]

One more thing, we are much closer to the center of the Earth than the moon and the Earth has more mass, therefore the Earth's gravity should have a lot more effect on us . . . .

And it does.

It keeps our feet firmly planted on the ground.

At least with most of us...

[mperez]

I forgot to mention this last week, but thought I'd put it down for the record.

The day after the total eclipse I asked my co-worker if she saw it on TV. She said while growing up her mother and others always believed that pregnant women should not go outside during an eclipse, and should fasten a safety pin under their shirt above their belly, so that their child would not be born with a cleft lip.

I said to her, "You know that's not true, right?" She replied, "Yeah, I know, but we still do it anyway."

I asked her if this old wive's tale applied only to total eclipses or partial eclipses as well. She wasn't sure, just that pregnant women should stay indoors. The reasoning was, "Well, I don't really believe it, but just in case, we still do it." I won't bother mentioning a similar corrollary to this. I like my co-worker very much, but she is embedded with all these old customs and alot of "just in case" thinking.

I had never heard this. She grew up in Texas, and I don't know why this idea of a cleft lip came about. I'll search for some info. Her family is Hispanic, so I don't know if this occurs just in Hispanic circles in a cultural sense. All I can say is that these pregnant women have missed out on some good eclipses!

Is anyone familiar with this?

YES! im currently 3months and also hispanic well... my mom just reminded me that their is a eclipse 20th &21st and i have college and work so i cant miss but she insist that i stay home! I have no idea what to do

[ravens_cry]

A man sees that the man sitting across from him on the train is calmly shredding his newspaper and tossing the bits out the window. "What the devil are you doing man?" the man asks. The newspaper ripper calmly replies, "I am keeping the elephants out of England." To which the first man answers "But sir, there are no elephants in England." To which the second man triumphantly answers, "Works well, doesn't it?"
That, mixed with religion, and the power of tradition, ("I like tradition, that way even the dead get a vote") and you have the reasons for most superstitions pretty well summed up in my opinion. And sometimes, the occasional correlation.