Solar eclipse

Solar eclipses are real life phenomena which play a heavy role in the Sorrow arc.

A conversation between Mina Hakuba and Soma Cruz in Aria of Sorrow briefly relates a Shinto story in which Tensho Daijin, or Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, hides herself in a cave to contain the anger of her brother Susanoo, the god of sea and storms. Due to this story, followers of Shinto believe that eclipses confine anger and evil intentions.

In the battle of 1999, one or more Shinto priests performed a ritual to seal Dracula's Castle into the solar eclipse.

Aria of Sorrow takes place inside Dracula's Castle, which is still sealed in the eclipse.

Saros Cycle 145
The fictional solar eclipses correspond to real-life solar eclipses. There was a total solar eclipse above Romania on August 11, 1999. There will be a total solar eclipse above Japan on September 2, 2035. Both eclipses belong to the same cycle, Solar Saros 145.

There is an eclipse between them in the cycle, centered over the United States, on August 21, 2017, the year of Soma Cruz's birth.