Wow, thats really interesting..and like Meryl says a great family story. How did you come to find out what it was? To think of 116 years ago them thiinking it was the end of the world...
Yeah, I also loved the story (even if I didn't comment).
them thiinking it was the end of the world...
Strange at first, eh? But then you get into thinking: they had no telephone, radio, no exposure to science (which was on an altogether different level anyway) and scientific thinking - but lots of priests and preachers of all kinds, and so on.
This makes it better understandable - theoretically.
But what brings understanding and empathy truly home for me is the complete eclipse we witnessed a couple of years ago. Remember that one?
We knew (more or less) everything about it beforehand, we had followed TV and newspaper reports, we were prepared with specific foils for our eyes, and so on. At the day of the event I was at my friends' house. We followed the reports from England, where people were gathered on an open field. It was indeed creepy to see the crowd and the reporter disappear into darkness right before our eyes, and we laughed when they returned. Motto: ok, the sun came back in England, thus it will come back for us, too. Of course, it was only a joke, but still.
A few minutes later the eclipse reached our area. We were on the terrace. It got not only dark, but also quiet. Very quiet, everything was silent, really everything. The birds were silent, no cars, no phones, no radio, no chatting from neighbours, no barking dogs - nothing. We only spoke in hushed tones together, if at all (like everybody else within a hundred kilometers, lol). It was darker than we had expected. And damn, it was reverential, but also a bit
creepy.
If we well-informed know-it-alls found it creepy, what else should people hundreds of years ago have felt but utter horror?