The birds went quiet

Michel Heitzmann

In 1999 I was living in Romania when a total solar eclipse crossed the country. The birds went quiet. Dogs stopped barking. Everyone was outside, strangers standing together looking up. It was eerie and beautiful and felt like the whole world paused for a minute.

Romania loved it so much they made a special banknote to commemorate it. A polymer 2,000 lei note with a see-through window. You could hold it up to the light and see the eclipse through your money. The first polymer banknote in Europe. A country so moved by what happened in the sky that they put it in everyone’s wallet.

I’ve never seen a lunar eclipse. This morning my phone told me there’s a total one tomorrow. The full moon will turn red for about an hour. They call it a blood moon. It’s the last one until New Year’s Eve 2028.

I can’t see it from here. The moon will already be below the horizon in Switzerland. But if you’re in the Americas, it happens before sunrise, around 3 to 5 AM. If you’re in Australia or East Asia, it’s tomorrow evening.

Dark skies, no sun. Perfect conditions to forget the chaos for an hour.

Yesterday I posted about Mărțișor on Reddit. A Romanian spring tradition I’d forgotten for 25 years until my phone reminded me. 104,000 people saw it. The top comment was from someone who’d never heard of it and said they were going to make one and wear it through March.

Two days ago it was forgotten flowers. Today it’s a blood moon. Both surfaced by the same quiet little tab on my phone.

I don’t know what it’ll show me tomorrow. That’s the part I like.

Go outside. Look up.