The longest total solar eclipse to occur this century swept across Asia today, beginning in India and progressing through Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Japan and eventually, the South Pacific.

Viewers within the optimal viewing corridor, known as the umbra, were treated to an event that lasted slightly longer than six and one-half minutes. Viewers outside of the umbra, in what is known as the penumbra, experienced a partial eclipse.

Local reactions were varied, acccording to the BBC.

“We have come here because our elders told us this is the best time to improve our afterlife,” said Bhailal Sharma, a villager who had traveled to Varanasi from central India.

The event in Varanasi was marred, however, when a woman was killed and several others injured in a stampede on the river banks, police said.

For others, the eclipse was seen to be a bad omen.

In Nepal, authorities shut all schools for the day to avoid exposing students to any ill-effects, says the BBC’s Joanna Jolly in Kathmandu.

Some parents in Delhi kept their children from attending school at breakfast because of a Hindu belief that it is inauspicious to prepare food during an eclipse, while pregnant women were advised to stay inside due to a belief that the eclipse could harm a foetus.

In addition to providing those in the eclipse’s path with a chance to witness a rare, heavenly spectacle, solar eclipses provide scientists the opportunity to study the 2 million degree gases surrounding the sun, known as the corona.