From the ancient Greeks to modern-day Hindus, the significance of solar eclipses varies across cultures

From Hindu beliefs involving demonsto gods turning day into night in ancient Greece: Different religions and cultures all have different views and practices when it comes tototal solar eclipses.

Ahead of Monday's total solar eclipse where Essex County, Ont. will be the first in Canada to see totality here's a bit of history on how different cultures have explained the solar phenomenon.

Eesha Das Gupta is an PhD student in the department of astronomy at the University of Toronto, and is Hindu.

She says the eclipse is generally seen as an inauspiciousevent.

"The story of eclipses, especially solar eclipses, falls around demons swallowing the sun, so it's seen generally as ominous," she said.

"In modern India that also leads to many people being discouraged from viewing the eclipse, although also as a Hindu astronomer, I don't completely agree with that."

For example, Das Gupta noted that last week Hindus celebrated Holi, and many people delayed their celebrations a day so as not to fall on the same day as a lunar eclipse.

She says Monday's total solar eclipse coincidences with the New Year's celebration of some Hindu communities, and many have chosen to delay celebrations to April 9.

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On Monday, swathes of Canada will be in the path of a total solar eclipse. Essex County will be the first place in Canada to experience totality, between 3:12 and 3:15 p.m.

She says that while there are beliefs about what caused an eclipse, Hindu astronomers were working to explain eclipses with the movement of the sun and moon as early as the 6th century in the texts that make up Hinduism's astronomical and astrological beliefs.

"Even though it's described as some demons swallowing the sun ...there's a calculation of how the ...demon moves and it's like very much mathematical," she said, noting it would often help inform the war, or peace, plans of rulers.

Before we understood how to safely observe an eclipse with special glasses, Das Gupta says it was no wonder people found it alarming.

"The whole hoopla around eclipse safety is also because it can cause severe eye damage, and you can think of this being 'ominous' as a way of caution from a day and age when eclipse glasses weren't there," she said. "Now that we have safe means to do so, we should go out and enjoy this."

"If you are a Hindu, no matter what your parents or older people say that eclipses are ominous and you shouldn't see it try to educate them as well and take them with you to see the eclipse and how amazing it's going to be.

"Get the whole family involved and be proud that you are part of a legacy that did explore eclipses as a means of exploring science and astronomy such a long time ago."

Paresh Pandya is the pandit, or spiritual leader, of Windsor's Hindu Temple and Cultural Centre. Observant Hindus will try to avoid eating or drinking for the duration of the eclipse, and pregnant people will avoid using sharp objects

"We have to take a certain precaution of the event happening," Pandya said.

Ancient Greeks, Romans believed eclipses caused by gods

Max Nelson is an associate professor of Greek and Roman studies at the University of Windsor.

He says that in ancient times, they believed the gods were responsible for the eclipse.

"These were one-off events that showed the anger of the gods that portended bad things," he said.

Afternoon Drive6:51How the ancients saw the eclipse

Today we understand how eclipses work through science, but it wasn't always that way. There was a time when humans saw the celestial dance of the moon and the sun as omens. Max Nelson, an assistant of Greek and Roman studies at the University of Windsor discusses how ancient cultures interpreted eclipses and how it affects the way we see these events today.

"Eclipses tended to be thought of as showing something evil that was coming, the death of someone or loss in battle or something like that."

Nelson pointed to a poem by 7th century poet Archilochus that tells the story of Zeus turning noon into night and causing panic. People would look to the sky, considered the realm of gods, to determine what was coming through weather, birds, and solar events.

"But by the 5th century BC, there were Greek philosophers and scientists who had figured out how in fact, both lunar and solar eclipses worked and that they were cyclical events that could be predicted," he said.

Nelson said that at the time, both lunar and solar eclipses were viewed as worrisome, but especially total solar eclipses like the one we'll experience on Monday.

"They are most awesome and awe-inspiring and worrisome to people who don't understand what's going on, right?"