Bhubaneswar: Even as the battle rages between traditionalists and rationalists over the consumption of food during the solar eclipse, a group of people on Tuesday organised a community feast and served chicken biryani in Odisha capital to send across a message against blind belief.
As per the traditional concept of Hindus, who worship the Sun as God, the solar eclipse occurs because Rahu, a demon, swallows the God for the short duration of the eclipse. But the rationalists have been defying it and trying to reason that it is a celestial phenomenon that takes place due to the constellation of stars and planets.
While the traditionalists propound that a devout Hindu has to forego cooked food during the inauspicious period of the eclipse, the non-believers hold that it is a superstition and the celestial positions millions of miles away hardly can have an effect on the food of humans.
In order to put across their point and prove the traditionalists wrong, the group of rationalists organised the community feast of non-vegetarian foods. “People of all ages, from children to old and all walks of life have turned up in good numbers to take the food cooked by us. We want to prove that having non-veg food during the eclipse will not lead to indigestion nor affect the health,” he said.
“The traditional concept is all nonsense. There will be no bad effects on our body if we consume cooked food or non-vegetarian food. I am 66 years old. I have never followed this superstition and have been taking all types of food during the eclipses since I remember,” said Pratap Rath, one of the rationalists.
“It is a superstition that demon Rahu swallows Sun and Moon during the eclipse. Modern science has proved this belief wrong by revealing how the eclipse occurs. It cannot have any effect on the food we consume,” said another member of the group.
