Lunar Eclipse: Rationalists cock a snook at myths, hold mass feasts in Odisha  

Like previous years, traditionalists on one side and rationalists and humanists on the other cited their respective logic over some taboos related to the lunar eclipse that fell on Full Moon day on Saturday. Incidentally, Kumar Purnima was also celebrated across Odisha today.  

The lunar eclipse would start at 1.05 am and end at 2.22 am. As per traditional belief, cooking, igniting fire in the kitchens and food consumption have been prohibited nine hours before the eclipse and during the celestial phenomenon. 

It is traditionally believed that cooking and eating during the eclipse time would take a toll on human health or create ailments. Hence, traditionalists usually preach against the consumption and cooking of food during eclipses.

However, some rationalists in Ganjam and Boudh districts cocked a snook at such beliefs and taboos linked to the lunar eclipse, dubbing those as myths and unscientific. Some organised a mass feast on Saturday in Berhmpur to spread awareness on such age-old beliefs and practices.  

To prove the traditionalists wrong, humanists and rationalists together threw a party in Boudh on Saturday and consumed non-veg food. Thus, they claimed that the strictures on cooking and eating during or prior to the eclipse are nothing but mere superstition. 

They considered such strictures as unscientific and myths against which they have been spreading public awareness almost every year. 

Suresh Rajhans, a rationalist of Boudh, observed, "Such strictures are unscientific and nothing will happen to people, patients, children if they eat, be it veg or non-veg food. Till date, we have taken food, but found no proof that we are falling sick.” 

Another rationalist Pradip Kumar Mahajan said, “We have been creating public awareness against such age-old superstition.”  

It was not the first time the rationalists organised a community feast as part of their awareness drive during the lunar or solar eclipse. 

Memories are still fresh about the incident that had taken place on November 8, 2022, at Lohia Academy in Bhubaneswar. That day, a huge row erupted when some rationalists held a chicken biryani feast during solar eclipse and it was strongly opposed by some ritualists. 

The ritualists allegedly attacked the former. Eight of the attackers were also arrested. The controversy continued for several days due to a prolonged verbal duel between traditionalists and rationalists.    

Some ritualists even lodged a complaint at Kharvel Nagar police station against the rationalists and accused the police of protecting the latter.