Four Reasons to NOT Freak Out About the Eclipse

On Monday, we here in Eastern Iowa, along with a vast portion of the United States, will be treated to the rare sight of a near total solar eclipse. This is the first total eclipse of the Sun visible from the contiguous United States since 1979!

Since this is 2017, science has come a long way since our ancestors gazed into the sky to see the sun being blocked out. As you can see by this easy to follow video from NASA, it's actually pretty easy to explain how an eclipse happens.

However, that's not how the people in the past throughout the world saw it. Here are four reasons you shouldn't freak out.

1. The Vikings thought a pair of sky wolves were chasing the sun or the moon, and when one of the wolves caught either of the shining orbs, an eclipse would result. Don't worry...there are NO sky wolves.

2. In Vietnam, it was believed that a frog or a toad eats the sun during an eclipse. There has been no space frog discovered as of yet.

3. In Hindu mythology, the demon Rahu disguises himself as a god in order to steal a taste of an elixir that grants immortality. The sun, not putting up with any of that, reports his crime to the god Vishnu. Vishnu, in turn, slices off Ragu's head before he can swallow it all, the consequence of which is that Ragu's head becomes immortal but his body dies. So now, Ragu's head chases the sun around and tries to swallow it every once in a while out of anger...but it just falls out of his neck. I'm fairly certain that this is not true.

4. Putting us all at ease are the Navajos. They simply believed that a solar eclipse was a part of nature. Being that they were so rare, the Navajos used eclipses as a time to come together and resolve old feuds and anger.

(Source: National Geographic)

Just repeat after me... THERE ARE NO GIANT SKY WOLVES... you're gonna be fine.