Hindus Rejoice as Lunar Eclipse Ends
Hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus expressed their fears during a lunar eclipse Sunday and then rejoiced at its end by plunging into India’s holy rivers.
The Press Trust of India said huge congregations of celebrating Hindus were seen at Varanasi and Allahabad, where the Ganges and Jamuna rivers merge. The Ganges and the Jamuna are Hinduism’s holiest rivers.
Many of India’s 600 million Hindus--most of them illiterate villagers--regard eclipses of the sun and moon as bad omens and mark the return of light as a triumph of good over evil.
The domestic news agency said that during the eclipse Saturday night and Sunday morning, Hindus fasted, prayed in temples, blew on conch shells, chanted mantras and recited from holy books.
Hundreds of thousands of worshipers in the world’s second-most-populous country headed for the banks of the Ganges and Jamuna by any mode posssible--on foot, by bicycle or in carts pulled by horses, camels or bullock.
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