Lunar Eclipse On Buddha Purnima 2023, Check Timings And Significance

Buddha Purnima will fall on May 5 this year and the moon will be eclipsed for the night. This means, unlike the rest of the full-moon nights, this night will be dimmer. Award-winning science broadcaster Sarika Gharu has informed people that this eclipse will start at 8.44 pm and end at 1.01 am, making the total duration of the eclipse 4 hours and 18 minutes.

The half-time mark will be at 10.52 pm in the night. This lunar eclipse will be visible from Asia, Australia and Southwestern Europe. About 83 per cent of the total population of the world will be able to see a part of it and about 56 per cent of the people will be able to see the entire eclipse.

Sarika also revealed how a lunar eclipse happens. She said that when the Earth falls between the sun and the moon, the earth’s shadow is cast over the moon which causes the eclipse. Sarika said that the moon of Buddha Purnima has been named the Flower Moon in the western countries. Native Americans also call it the Budding Moon, Egg Laying Moon and Plating Moon. The last time a lunar eclipse happened on Buddha Purnima was on May 26, 2021.

During the eclipse, the moon will be at a distance of about 3.8 lakh kilometres from Earth. While many believe this is the shortest distance between the Earth and the moon, the distance lessens by 20 thousand kilometres at the time of the Supermoon effect which is why the natural satellite appears bigger than usual during this time.

Buddha Purnima 2023 will commemorate the 2585th birth anniversary of Lord Buddha. The Purnima tithi will begin at 11:44 pm on May 4 and end at 11:05 pm on May 5. The day holds great religious importance for Buddhists and others who follow Buddhism. According to the Buddhist texts, it is believed that Gautam Buddha was born in 563 BCE in Lumbini, Nepal and he died at the age of 80 at Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh in 483 BCE. While the exact day of his birth and death are still unknown, the birth anniversary is celebrated by the dates prescribed in the scriptures.

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