The other day , we saw the longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly 600 years, lasting nearly 3.5 hours.
In ancient times, the ancestors were unable to understand the root cause of the phenomenon of solar and lunar eclipses. They believed that it was caused by a terrible power and always felt uneasy inside, so they used to scare the strange beasts that ate the moon by beating wooden pots, bells and drums, so as to protect the moon from being attacked.
The mythical story of a celestial dog eating the moon in Chinese culture goes like this. The legend says that in ancient times, there was a man named Mulian who was good and kind by nature. He was very filial to his mother, but his mother, who was a Empress, was violent and evil by nature. Once, the mother of Mulian suddenly came up with an evil idea: she ordered to make 360 dog meat steamed buns, lying about vegetarian buns to get monks to open their fainting spells and eat dog meat. When he found out about this, he tried in vain to persuade her and sent for the abbot of the monastery. The abbot then prepared three hundred and sixty vegetarian steamed buns and hid them in the sleeves of each monk's robe. Afterwards, the three hundred and sixty dog meat steamed buns, in the back of the monastery buried in the earth. The Jade Emperor was very angry when he learned of this. He turned her into a wicked dog and was eternal damnation forever. Afterwards, the mother of Mulian escaped from hell and went to the Heavenly Court to settle the score with the Jade Emperor. When she couldn't find the Jade Emperor in heaven, she went after the sun and the moon, trying to devour them and turn heaven and earth into a world of darkness. When she caught the moon, she swallowed it; when she caught the sun, she also swallowed it. For a long time, the folklore had the saying of "the celestial dog eats the sun" and "the celestial dog eats the moon". Until now, whenever there is an eclipse of the sun or moon, many people still circulate the custom of beating gongs and drums and setting off firecrackers to chase away the celestial dog.