I Told Them It Was a Sign From God

Okay, I'm going to spoil today's Q with another story about my children.

I live in Arkansas, so we were able to see the lunar eclipse this morning. I took them outside and they began to roughhouse with the neighbor's children while we were waiting for it to begin. By the time the moon turned red, they had broken into an all out fight. So, I told them "LOOK!, You made God angry by fighting and he's turned the moon into blood!"

They've been nice to each other ever since.

This has happened before. On May 28, 585 BCE, a five-year war, between the Lydians and the Medes, came to an abrupt end due to a total solar eclipse in the middle of fighting. It was the Battle of Halys.

They thought it was a sign from the gods.

During a lunar eclipse, the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon, and the Earth's shadow is cast upon the moon. Often times, the light gets bent from our atmosphere, just like a sunset. Therefore, the shadow can appear red.

I can absolutely see how a culture without an understanding of the larger solar system can see this as a sign from deities.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;