The Day the Sun Went Out

The sky went dark at dinner time. This week, in northern Spain, people stood on rooftops and beaches and mountain roads, all looking up at the same moment. The moon slid in front of the sun, day turned into a strange silver night, and for about two minutes nobody in the crowd said a word. Tag the person you would have watched it with.

Imagine you are there. You are in a small square in northern Spain, holding your paper glasses. The air gets cooler. The birds stop singing, because they think night has come early. The street lamps switch themselves on. Then someone shouts, the last point of sunlight disappears, and a black circle with a ring of white fire hangs in the sky.

A total eclipse had not crossed mainland Europe in twenty seven years, and this one chose Spain and Iceland for its show. To make the evening even stranger, it happened during the week of the famous summer meteor shower, so some lucky people saw shooting stars while the sun was hidden. The sun came back, the birds started again, and everyone in the square began to talk at once.