Up, on top of the darlingthere is a giant ball of fire, whose movements organize the time in days and the light that radiates is responsible for the life in the Land. Formerly seen as a god who was worshiped to ensure the continuity of the worldtoday science tells us that the sun is a star in the center of a planetary system. Its existence represents the most primal thing in nature, a force that does not change: we are accompanied by the certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow to set at dusk. This is what happened yesterday, last year and twenty million years ago.
That is why the eclipses are fascinating. They represent alterations in something seemingly immutable like the cycles of nature. Their irregularity, as well as the confusion and fear they unleash, make them repositories of all kinds of superstitions. Imagine not having astronomical knowledge and noticing an unusual light in the middle of the day, witnessing how a disconcerting silhouette progressively diminishes the sunlight until it is completely covered, while the skies darken. For a few moments it is neither night nor day, neither dusk nor dawn. And in the place previously occupied by the king star there is now an ominous ring of fire that confuses birds and insects and makes people pray.
A dance that is at the same time a combat, a transformation and renewal of the forces that give meaning and order to life. Observation over decades and centuries, as well as technological advances, have given us a complete and scientific understanding of these celestial phenomena, to the point of being able to predict them thousands of years away, knowing their duration and the best places to observe them. However, the amazement remains as intact as ever, as demonstrated by the fact that seventy thousand people from all over the world gathered in Mazatlán to observe the total annular eclipse on April 8.
The boardwalk was closed. Crowds of people walked along the beach, every now and then putting on their special glasses and looking at the sky. Homemade and professional telescopes prostrate on the sidewalks. Gigantic sculptures inspired by solar and lunar motifs decorated the second longest boardwalk in the world. Banners, t-shirts, signs and billboards confirmed that we were facing a unique and unrepeatable event. Hundreds of euphoric people, shouting and celebrating, receiving the most important eclipse in fifty years. And suddenly, the darkening of the light. Those liminal moments, that felt like an eternity, in which time and space as we know it ceased to exist.
What effect do eclipses have on people? Defenders of reason and scientific thought will say that none, that it is simply an astronomical event, a conjunction of two stars that has nothing magical about it. But the videos, photographs and memes that still circulate show a general shock. These events only happen two or three times in a person's life and offer food for thought. What lessons do we learn from a sun that is momentarily obscured by the moon, only to return renewed to continue the endless cycle of days?
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