I see loads of superstitions in my family and neighborhood, not that this is the only such place in the world. Most of these superstitions are harmless, meaningless, costs a little, and typically gets the tag of culture. The rationale I keep hearing is - our ancestors have started this practice, they must have done it for a good reason, it could be valid forever, and it's like insulting them if we don't continue it. Irrational orthodox people do it because of the fear of god - if we do it, god helps us, otherwise god punishes us.
Here's how a typical superstition looks like. Few centuries ago, there was an orthodox Hindu family in a village. They had a cute cat in the house. Normally, they liked the cat running around the house. In one of the festive events, they felt it was annoying to see the cat coming in the way of holy rituals. So, the father asked his son to hide the cat in a basket. He used an ingeniously made basket which was used to store grains. They started using this simple trick during all the festive events in the family. More than a couple of generations passed by, this trick was kind of inherited as a family tradition. The family expanded with marriages and as the marriages mostly happened within the caste (a particular caste of Hindu), the tradition gradually became a tradition of the caste. If they didn't have a cat in the house, they borrowed a cat from the neighbors for the tradition. By this time, it's no more just a trick, it's a superstitious tradition. Coming to the present time, one such family residing in Bengaluru city, on every festival, gets a cat from neighbors. They have bought a traditional ingeniously made basket only for the tradition. Over the time, some other processes are added to the tradition by the religious gurus of the caste. The father has to hand over the basket to the eldest son during auspicious time of the day. The basket and the cat should be decorated like holy deities. They need to put a red dot (tilak/kunkum) on the forehead of the cat and feed it with a glass of cow's milk before hiding it in the basket, which is to be kept in North-East corner of the house. This tradition brings peace and prosperity in the house and if it's broken, it'll reduce the age of the father by an year. Some descendants staying in North America, rents a cat from local pet-store on every festival. They twisted the tradition a little bit by using a plastic basket, which made their relatives in India very angry because they think that's going to cost their father's age. Because they are smart and moderate, they convinced their relatives that they haven't forgotten the tradition unlike some so-called-rational relatives in India. If this looks like I'm exaggerating it, some of our superstitious traditions are worse.
In the cat-under-the-basket tradition, it's clearly started for a reason. It's just that along with the tradition, the reason didn't pass through mostly because we don't question our elders. Questioning is not taken so well, especially youngsters questioning the rationale behind the traditions is treated like a sin. Probably this is the main reason for the existence of superstitions in India. Some traditions may still have a significance, but a lot of them are obsolete. This is one class of superstitions - they started for a reason long time back, and are continued even when the it doesn't make sense.
The reason behind most of the superstitions around pregnancy and child-birth are relatively easy to understand. Pregnancy is one of the most significant natural processes in our lives. Not much was known about how the baby was being developed and how the external factors affect the sensitive fetus and the mother. It was very sensible to play safe when things are very unsure especially when it matters so much to us. The recommendations somehow turned into must-do things either because they were told by our elders or because someone has introduced the fear of god in process. Here are the typical traditions/myths/superstitions around the eclipses that I keep hearing.
1. Do not step out during the eclipse. Otherwise, it damages your eyes badly if not other parts, and damages the fetus of pregnant women.
2. The food is poisoned during the eclipse. Hence trash all the food after the eclipse and cook fresh food.
3. Eclipse is an evil phenomenon. After the eclipse, you should take bath and also sanitize the house by sweeping the floor and/or throwing drops of holy water.
All these are myths! Solar Eclipse is a spectacular natural phenomenon. When the Moon comes in between the Sun and the Earth, the shadow of the Moon falls on the Earth blocking the view of the Sun. In olden days, when they didn't know it, were naturally frightened by the look of it because it looks like the so powerful Sun is being eaten by some dark force. That must have given the sense of evil act. Sun light is not just the bright visible light, it has ultraviolet rays which are harmful to some extent. Even on non-eclipse days, we are exposed to this light and we don't stare at the Sun in bright light. During eclipse, mostly because of blocking the brightness and the spectacular-ness of the event , people are tempted to stare at it. This may harm your eyes if you don't use UV protection glasses. So, use UV protection glasses and enjoy the spectacular event. During the eclipse, a part of the light is blocked by an obstacle (the Moon), which is not synthesizing any new radiation. It doesn't poisons the food. If this poisons the food, we would have to throw all the green leaves and vegetable grown/growing in the fields. Or we must stop eating green leaves and vegetables for few more months because they might have poisoned by the eclipse few days back when it was in the field/storage. Don't waste food for this fear. If you are taking bath immediately after the eclipse and cleaning your house for the fear, good for you, thanks to the eclipse. I pity you for needing a false reason to do a good job.
The image you see here is from a traditional calendar in Kannada. It essentially says - Solar eclipse is from 12:10PM to 4:30PM peaking at 2:20PM. It asks senior citizens, kids, ill people and pregnant women to have food before 7:30 AM on Tuesday. It indicates that all these people shouldn't eat from 7:30AM till the eclipse ends in the evening. It also mentions that the eclipse brings bad luck to all the regions on which it appears.
As solar eclipse is treated as an evil phenomenon and also it's a new moon day, obviously a child born on that day is considered very unlucky. If my son/daughter is born on such a day, it gives me a chance to make a point that it really doesn't matter. There is a risk of my relatives pointing to it whenever a little something happens to my child. I don't think the day the child comes out of its mother's womb matters so much on its behavior and the luck. Genetic behaviors are mostly decided much before the delivery day, mostly at the time of inception. As far as luck is concerned, no one knows because of the complexity of the world we live in, or at least not based on the day/time the child comes out of its mother's womb.
If you agree with me about the above mentioned practices as myths, you can try to convince your relatives/friends by demonstrating the following act. Solar eclipse on Jan 4th is a partial one and it's not going to be seen in India, at least not in South India. But our traditional calendar says the whole duration is from 12:10PM to 4:30PM with peak time as 2:20PM. At around 2:20PM, go out in the Sun for couple of minutes. There's no point in staring at the Sun because the Moon's shadow is not falling in our region. Also, during the eclipse time, make sure to grab something to eat. These are simple acts to demonstrate that we now know that these are myths.
The reasons behind superstitions could be a simple trick like the one in cat-under-the-basket tradition or lack of knowledge at that time. It's the responsibility of younger generations to reason it out and stop the traditions which doesn't make sense now.
Regards,
Channa Bankapur
Here's how a typical superstition looks like. Few centuries ago, there was an orthodox Hindu family in a village. They had a cute cat in the house. Normally, they liked the cat running around the house. In one of the festive events, they felt it was annoying to see the cat coming in the way of holy rituals. So, the father asked his son to hide the cat in a basket. He used an ingeniously made basket which was used to store grains. They started using this simple trick during all the festive events in the family. More than a couple of generations passed by, this trick was kind of inherited as a family tradition. The family expanded with marriages and as the marriages mostly happened within the caste (a particular caste of Hindu), the tradition gradually became a tradition of the caste. If they didn't have a cat in the house, they borrowed a cat from the neighbors for the tradition. By this time, it's no more just a trick, it's a superstitious tradition. Coming to the present time, one such family residing in Bengaluru city, on every festival, gets a cat from neighbors. They have bought a traditional ingeniously made basket only for the tradition. Over the time, some other processes are added to the tradition by the religious gurus of the caste. The father has to hand over the basket to the eldest son during auspicious time of the day. The basket and the cat should be decorated like holy deities. They need to put a red dot (tilak/kunkum) on the forehead of the cat and feed it with a glass of cow's milk before hiding it in the basket, which is to be kept in North-East corner of the house. This tradition brings peace and prosperity in the house and if it's broken, it'll reduce the age of the father by an year. Some descendants staying in North America, rents a cat from local pet-store on every festival. They twisted the tradition a little bit by using a plastic basket, which made their relatives in India very angry because they think that's going to cost their father's age. Because they are smart and moderate, they convinced their relatives that they haven't forgotten the tradition unlike some so-called-rational relatives in India. If this looks like I'm exaggerating it, some of our superstitious traditions are worse.
In the cat-under-the-basket tradition, it's clearly started for a reason. It's just that along with the tradition, the reason didn't pass through mostly because we don't question our elders. Questioning is not taken so well, especially youngsters questioning the rationale behind the traditions is treated like a sin. Probably this is the main reason for the existence of superstitions in India. Some traditions may still have a significance, but a lot of them are obsolete. This is one class of superstitions - they started for a reason long time back, and are continued even when the it doesn't make sense.
The reason behind most of the superstitions around pregnancy and child-birth are relatively easy to understand. Pregnancy is one of the most significant natural processes in our lives. Not much was known about how the baby was being developed and how the external factors affect the sensitive fetus and the mother. It was very sensible to play safe when things are very unsure especially when it matters so much to us. The recommendations somehow turned into must-do things either because they were told by our elders or because someone has introduced the fear of god in process. Here are the typical traditions/myths/superstitions around the eclipses that I keep hearing.
1. Do not step out during the eclipse. Otherwise, it damages your eyes badly if not other parts, and damages the fetus of pregnant women.
2. The food is poisoned during the eclipse. Hence trash all the food after the eclipse and cook fresh food.
3. Eclipse is an evil phenomenon. After the eclipse, you should take bath and also sanitize the house by sweeping the floor and/or throwing drops of holy water.
All these are myths! Solar Eclipse is a spectacular natural phenomenon. When the Moon comes in between the Sun and the Earth, the shadow of the Moon falls on the Earth blocking the view of the Sun. In olden days, when they didn't know it, were naturally frightened by the look of it because it looks like the so powerful Sun is being eaten by some dark force. That must have given the sense of evil act. Sun light is not just the bright visible light, it has ultraviolet rays which are harmful to some extent. Even on non-eclipse days, we are exposed to this light and we don't stare at the Sun in bright light. During eclipse, mostly because of blocking the brightness and the spectacular-ness of the event , people are tempted to stare at it. This may harm your eyes if you don't use UV protection glasses. So, use UV protection glasses and enjoy the spectacular event. During the eclipse, a part of the light is blocked by an obstacle (the Moon), which is not synthesizing any new radiation. It doesn't poisons the food. If this poisons the food, we would have to throw all the green leaves and vegetable grown/growing in the fields. Or we must stop eating green leaves and vegetables for few more months because they might have poisoned by the eclipse few days back when it was in the field/storage. Don't waste food for this fear. If you are taking bath immediately after the eclipse and cleaning your house for the fear, good for you, thanks to the eclipse. I pity you for needing a false reason to do a good job.
The image you see here is from a traditional calendar in Kannada. It essentially says - Solar eclipse is from 12:10PM to 4:30PM peaking at 2:20PM. It asks senior citizens, kids, ill people and pregnant women to have food before 7:30 AM on Tuesday. It indicates that all these people shouldn't eat from 7:30AM till the eclipse ends in the evening. It also mentions that the eclipse brings bad luck to all the regions on which it appears.
As solar eclipse is treated as an evil phenomenon and also it's a new moon day, obviously a child born on that day is considered very unlucky. If my son/daughter is born on such a day, it gives me a chance to make a point that it really doesn't matter. There is a risk of my relatives pointing to it whenever a little something happens to my child. I don't think the day the child comes out of its mother's womb matters so much on its behavior and the luck. Genetic behaviors are mostly decided much before the delivery day, mostly at the time of inception. As far as luck is concerned, no one knows because of the complexity of the world we live in, or at least not based on the day/time the child comes out of its mother's womb.
If you agree with me about the above mentioned practices as myths, you can try to convince your relatives/friends by demonstrating the following act. Solar eclipse on Jan 4th is a partial one and it's not going to be seen in India, at least not in South India. But our traditional calendar says the whole duration is from 12:10PM to 4:30PM with peak time as 2:20PM. At around 2:20PM, go out in the Sun for couple of minutes. There's no point in staring at the Sun because the Moon's shadow is not falling in our region. Also, during the eclipse time, make sure to grab something to eat. These are simple acts to demonstrate that we now know that these are myths.
The reasons behind superstitions could be a simple trick like the one in cat-under-the-basket tradition or lack of knowledge at that time. It's the responsibility of younger generations to reason it out and stop the traditions which doesn't make sense now.
Regards,
Channa Bankapur
evrything u hav told is true...except da thing abt radiations..coz, helium was first discovered during solar eclipse ;)
ReplyDeleteNice Post! I completely agree with you on this.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I believe one thing about superstitions. And that is, that, just like "faith", superstitions too should be very personal in an ideal world. If one wants to believe in a superstition, in whatever state of mind, to satiate the same "irrational mind", they have all the rights to. But, the moment orders are being given and certain kind of behaviour is expected from others, it becomes an idiotic affair.
I, for one, can't wait for the day that 'Indian Culture' becomes all about "Live and let live" :D
P.S: I have written a post on a similar topic,
http://kritikality.blogspot.com/2008/01/superstitions-galore.html
but tell me one thing. how do you thing such a practice of avoiding ill effects of solar eclipse(if any) has come into existence?
ReplyDeletelets say there was some phenomenal rare solar eclipse on which due to some extreme conditions of the eclipse hundreds of people died which made them become serious about all forthcoming eclipses. how can you decline such an incident being the probable reason? how can you say it is completely superstitious?
ReplyDeleteGood post Channa! For an irrational mind ready to accept anything without questioning and without a scientific investigation, anything can turn into a superstition, just like the above comment on your post.
ReplyDeleteNice to see comments from all of you, thanks.
ReplyDelete@Avi, how's the discovery of helium is contradicting my post? Eclipse is not synthesizing helium. It's was easier to spot helium on an eclipse time than a normal time.
@Kriti, I read your post on superstitions. That's a great read. Generally, your posts are nice to read.
@Pramod, I'm impressed by your commitment of supporting all the traditions and beliefs, superstitious or otherwise. As you seem to mean, all you need is anything-is-possible rationale to be superstitious. As I pointed out in the fictional cat-under-the-basket tradition, once you lost the proofs of the origin of the tradition, it's almost impossible to prove it's a superstition unless a logical deduction.
@Manjunath, nice to hear from you. My mom is almost convinced of my argument and ready to experiment by not doing the obvious superstitious traditions this eclipse.