Desperate Single Women Spotted Nak£d in Wild Marriage Rituals

AS last week’s blood moon painted the sky a fiery red, some Zimbabwean women ditched dating apps for a far more . . . primal approach to finding love.

Forget sliding into a guy’s DMs. These ladies headed deep into the bush, stripped naked under the eerie glow of the blood moon, and howled their crush’s name three times at the top of their lungs.

After this midnight serenade, they wrapped a special piece of cloth — blessed by a prophet — around their mouths and walked back without uttering a word to anyone.

Once safely back at the prophet’s hut, the cloth is prayed over again and voilà… the man of their dreams is supposedly hooked for life.

“You’re guaranteed to get your man!” declared a giggling Sibongile Moyo (22). “That’s how my sister got married and that’s how I’ll also get married soon. You just have to follow the instructions exactly.”

While some might laugh it off, for Sibongile and others, it’s serious business.

“Prophets’ cashed in on the craze, linking the ritual to the 7 September blood moon. One popular Facebook preacher,

Prophet Malcom Kaitano, stoked the frenzy with a cryptic late-night post.

“Do not sleep without praying,” he warned. “A strong spirit of death has been released tonight. If you can see the moon in the sky, this is not for decoration — it’s a sign. Pray, and those with little babies anoint them before midnight.”

Netizens were merciless. Responses to the post (478 comments by Wednesday afternoon) could crack a rib or two.

They called him dull, uneducated and relying on old-school scare tactics to hook “imbecilic” followers. The hard-hitting responses were satiric, with the kind of humour used to dismiss ‘hogwash.’

Cue mass panic, frantic prayers and, yes, women scurrying into the bush to shout their lovers’ names.

Traditionally, Zimbabwean elders viewed a blood moon as a serious omen. In some villages, people would beat drums and whistle to “scare away” whatever was “eating” the moon. Among the Shona, it was seen as a warning of war or death.

Gogo Moyo (73) from Insiza remembers the old ways well.

“You never ignored a blood moon,” she said. “It meant something big was coming. We would gather and sing all night to keep evil away.”

The belief isn’t just African. In ancient China, people banged pots to chase away a celestial dragon thought to be devouring the moon. In India, families stayed indoors, especially pregnant women, fearing bad spiritual influences.

Across Europe, medieval villagers saw the red moon as a sign of plague or famine. In Norse mythology, a giant wolf named Hati was said to have caught the moon, signalling chaos and destruction.

Even Hollywood has cashed in, linking blood moons to werewolves and vampires. Pop culture now paints them as nights when supernatural creatures grow stronger, a perfect backdrop for horror flicks.

But science has far less dramatic, almost anti-climactic explanation.

A blood moon is simply a total lunar eclipse, when Earth blocks the sun’s light, leaving only red wavelengths to illuminate the moon. No vampires, no werewolves, just physics.

Still, for many, last Sunday was not about science — it was about superstition, romance and a touch of madness.

So, if you heard shrieks in the bush on 7 September, don’t panic. It might not be a wolf or a witch. It could just be Sibongile and friends, shooting their shot . . . blood moon style.

-B metro