This week, the United States witnessed a total solar eclipse. While most of us think "that's cool," some Americans are looking forward to more than just the moon covering the sun and day turning to night - people want action . So in the days leading up to the eclipse, these people frantically spread the eclipse predictions to all their friends on social media. Now that the dust has settled, let's see if their predictions come true, and take a look at other common solar eclipse-related myths, old and new.
Myth 1: "It's bad/important that the total path of the solar eclipse passes through every place named 'Nineve' in the United States."
Nineveh, the ancient Assyrian city in upper Mesopotamia, is described as an evil place in the Bible - the Book of Jonah, so some Christians believe that the eclipse passes over all seven (or five) of the United States. The place named after it means what God is going to do, right? It's hard to say.
They're mostly small, rural communities -- the largest, Nineveh, has just 3,987 people -- and don't look particularly evil (but I've never been there, so who knows). In fact, only two Ninevehs lie in the path of a total solar eclipse. Did the people living in these two towns repent and follow God like the people of Nineveh in the Bible when Jonah showed up and yelled at them? Does not look like.
Conclusion : Not established
Myth 2: Stocks fall after a solar eclipse
This statement is technically correct, but not in the way some people think. Since we started accurately recording stock prices, there have been seven total solar eclipses in the United States, and five of them resulted in slight stock market declines. But this sample size is not large enough to draw any meaningful conclusions. That said, it makes sense that the eclipse would have some impact on the economy -- more people travel and buy paper sunglasses, everyone stops working for an hour, there's no sense of the sun being swallowed up, etc. -- But it's impossible to say what impact it has on the Dow because there are so many other variables.
Conclusion : Not enough information
Myth 3: Solar eclipse rays are harmful and can cause blindness
Understandably, in the days leading up to the eclipse, responsible people would be heavily promoting "Don't look at the eclipse, you impossible idiots!" on their platforms. But this doesn't seem to work. After the solar eclipse, the number of searches for "why do my eyes hurt" increased sharply, and this may also lead people to believe that the light of the solar eclipse is particularly harmful and dazzling. actually not. It's just sunshine. But with or without a solar eclipse, staring at the sun for long periods of time can damage your eyes.
The counter-conspiracy theory: "There's nothing wrong with staring at a solar eclipse, they're just trying to hide something from you" is also untrue. I think it's mostly a joke, but I can't tell.
Conclusion : Partially true
Myth 4: The government will use the eclipse to arouse fear in the public or divert attention to further its frenzied pursuit of power.
Many variations of these theories come from comments posted by Alex Jones on X's lazy shit thread. There's a grain of truth in it: Some states did mobilize National Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) troops during the eclipse, but that was in anticipation of a lot of visitors, or for traffic control. The same thing happened in 2017. As far as I know, there was no mass roundup of patriots under the moon's shadow.
Conclusion : Not established
Myth 5: The Rapture will coincide with a lunar eclipse.
As described in the Book of Revelation, the "Rapture" will occur in the last days of mankind, when both living and dead believers will ascend to heaven. This actually happened on Monday! Kind people flew into the sky together with all the angels and skeletons. Everyone went to heaven and saw God. So cool I'm surprised you're still on Earth.
Conclusion : Confirmed
Myth 6: "Zeus, the father of Olympia, blocked the light of the blooming sun and turned noon into night, and now the terror of darkness envelopes mankind. Anything can happen."
In the seventh century BC, the poet Archilochus wrote this golden line after seeing a solar eclipse on a small Greek island. A solar eclipse is an interaction between the moon, earth, and sun, not the shield of Zeus, but the terror of darkness does hang over humanity and anything can happen. Archilochus therefore has part of the credit here.
"Anything can happen" is similar to modern radical Christians' view of solar eclipses as a sign of the end of humanity, as well as to countless other variations on the theme in other cultures. Solar eclipses are widely believed to be omens of dire events to come. I think many people are like this. But you can't say they're wrong, because terrible things are bound to happen, just like they did before. But you can't connect a solar eclipse with a disaster either. More realistically, bad things happen eventually, and eclipses sometimes do.
Mixed conclusions
