Why is the ecliptic historically significant regarding solar and lunar events?

Eclipses can only occur when the Moon's orbital path crosses the ecliptic plane

The historical naming convention of the ecliptic is directly tied to observable alignment events involving Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. For a solar eclipse (where the Moon blocks the Sun) or a lunar eclipse (where Earth blocks sunlight from the Moon), a precise alignment of all three bodies is required. This precise alignment can only happen if the Moon's own orbital path intersects the Earth's orbital plane around the Sun (the ecliptic) at the moment of the alignment. If the Moon's orbit were significantly tilted relative to the ecliptic, these shadow events would occur far more frequently or never, as the three bodies would consistently pass above or below each other from an observer's perspective.