Majid is very happy. He’s spending his vacation at his grandfather’s village. Everything in the village seems beautiful, even the moon, whose color was red that night. While Majid was drawing in his room, he heard a strange noise. He ran toward his grandfather. “What’s the matter, Grandfather?” His grandfather said to him as he was preparing to go out, “The village residents are waiting for my first signal to bang on pots and tour the village to scare whoever is strangling the moon and make him leave it.”
Majid couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He opened his mouth and his eyes widened, and said to himself, “Can you believe this, Grandfather?” He continued, “Superstitions, superstitions. All these are superstitions. No one strangles the moon. We just have to wait.” His grandfather said to him, “You’re small, Majid. This is what we know, and we’ve been accustomed to it for a long time.”
Majid said, “I don’t believe. How does this happen?” Majid continued, “Please, Grandfather, don’t do that. Wait so I can prove it to you.” His grandfather said, “If I wait, the village residents won’t wait.” Majid replied, “Grant me just a few minutes. I’ll bring you a book from my uncle’s library on the upper floor.”
Majid said, “Oh my Lord, the book doesn’t exist. Why, uncle, don’t you buy a book about lunar eclipse? What will I do until they believe?” Majid returned sad. His grandfather said, “It seems you didn’t find any book. We must begin the ceremonies of helping the moon. I must go.” He said to him, “Please, Grandfather, these are superstitions. I studied the phenomenon of lunar eclipse at school.” He pulled his grandfather’s hand breathlessly. “Look at the moon.” Majid remembered that scientific observatory at the top of the mountain. He said, “I’ll prove it to you. Come with me, Grandfather, to the observatory.”
A man from the village said to him, “Where are you going, mayor? We want to bang the pots and free the moon from its bonds.” Majid waved his hand and said, “We’ll return immediately. Don’t bang the pots until we return and tell you what to do.” The engineer at the observatory said, “The earth comes between the sun and the moon, blocking the sun’s rays from the moon.” The grandfather raised his eyebrows until it approached his turban, saying, “Amazing.” The engineer continued his speech, “When the sun’s rays are reflected in red color from the moon’s surface after passing through the earth’s atmosphere.”
The grandfather said, “I truly don’t believe. The matter is natural. No one is strangling the moon.” Majid jumped into the air happily, saying, “Did you believe what I’m saying finally?” Majid returned with his grandfather to the village. The grandfather smiled and said, “I confirmed myself that the lunar eclipse is a natural matter.”
A man stepped forward from the crowd and said, “If you don’t bang the pot, I’ll bang it myself. The moon is being strangled, and we want to help it.” The grandfather said to them, “No, believe me. I’ve learned the truth of the matter.” The man interrupted angrily, “This is empty talk. We want to bang the pots as we’re accustomed to.”
An elderly woman from the village said, “We all know someone is strangling the moon, and it won’t go away until that evil one who is strangling it fears and leaves far away.” A small child said, “We want to bang the pots.” The grandfather looked in confusion at Majid. “They weren’t convinced. What should we do?” Majid approached and whispered the trick in his ear.
Majid said to everyone, “Won’t you listen to me?” Everyone listened. Majid cleared his throat and said, “On our way from the observatory, we met a man who confirmed he saw a creature called the Silah coming down from the mountain. I fear if you bang the pots, he’ll know our place and come to attack us.” At that moment, everyone’s eyes widened. Then they carried their shoes in their hands, held the hems of their robes, and fled in terror.
Majid said, with his face shining in the moonlight, “Did you see how the moon returned without a single bang?” A man from the village rejoiced in wonder. “Look, the moon’s color returned without a single bang.”