By: nikky Howard
Submitted: 2010-07-10 03:25:15 | Word Count: 564
India has very wealthy tradition of making almanacs. In older days they were written on either Bhuurja(birch) bark or Taalapattra(Palm leaf). These days they are printed .
Almanacs list all the necessary spiritual events to be performed within the duration of 365 (or 366) days. They give all the dates within the tabular form with the mandatory details of the specific time of sunrise and sunset, starting date and ending date of all six seasons (not four seasons, India has six seasons ) rise and set of all the visible celestial bodies just like the moon, the celebrities etc. Even constellations they list.
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Major feature of the almanacs is their exact prediction of periodical incidence of eclipses- both lunar and solar. In this explicit aspect they create us wonderstruck as a result of of their accuracy.
One shall not forget that all of the ancient lore is mixed with mythological beliefs. In step with the Indian mythology, Sun is devoured fully or partially by a demon by ‘Raahu' during solar eclipse and after sometime, is spit out. Moon (‘He' per Indian mythology and not ‘She' as in European culture) is absolutely devoured by another demon namely ‘Ketu' throughout the time of Lunar eclipse. It's as a result of of those two demons, these poor Sun and Moon are in vital condition throughout the time of eclipse !
The ancient scientists who were sensible in astronomy failed to node once listening this fable. They strongly argued that ‘Raahu' means that the shadow of moon that falls on the planet and ‘Ketu' means shadow of the world that falls on the moon.
In India you'll see a bookshop without having books of Chemistry, Physics, fictions, grammar or Philosophy. But hardly you will return across a serious bookshop that does not have works on astrological prediction.
Personally, I don't believe in astrological prediction . But I do fancy a story of an astrologer who correctly predicted:
‘‘Once upon a time, there was a landlord. In some unspecified time in the future, a small lizard fell on his forefinger. Since he was sturdy believer in astrology, he smelt a negative consequence hinted by this incident. Immediately, he known as for an astrologer. Being asked on the damaging incident hinted by falling of lizard on forefinger of landlord, the astrologer uttered two words: ‘Death tomorrow'.
‘‘Getting scared, the owner known as all of his relatives and told : ‘Tomorrow I'm going to die. Please prepare for my correct death ceremony. ' The relatives lamented and began to weep. But even when 2 days he failed to die. When he accidentally open the door of kitchen, he noticed that the lizard, being stuck in between outer half of the doorframe and the door, was dead.
‘‘That astrologer had not said that the landlord will die. He had uttered solely 2 words: Death tomorrow. That is all! Clearly, he meant death of lizard and not landowner.
‘‘Which means, the astrology isn't pseudo-science. It's ‘Scientific' science!''
Author Resource:-
Nik has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Almanacs,you can also check out his latest website about:
