Full moon
[3] This means that the lunar hemisphere facing Earth—the near side—is completely sunlit and appears as an approximately circular disk.
The time interval between a full moon and the next repetition of the same phase, a synodic month, averages about 29.53 days.
If the calendar date is not locally determined through observation of the new moon at the beginning of the month there is the potential for a further twelve hours difference depending on the time zone.
Typical monthly calendars that include lunar phases may be offset by one day when prepared for a different time zone.
It is a poor time for other observations because the bright sunlight reflected by the Moon, amplified by the opposition surge, then outshines many stars.
[8][9][10] Lunar eclipses happen only during a full moon and around points on its orbit where the satellite may pass through the planet's shadow.
Lunar eclipses happen only when the full moon occurs around either node of its orbit (ascending or descending).
In Buddhism, Vesak is celebrated on the full moon day of the Vaisakha month, marking the birth, enlightenment, and the death of the Buddha.
Full moons are traditionally associated with insomnia (inability to sleep), insanity (hence the terms lunacy and lunatic) and various "magical phenomena" such as lycanthropy.
Psychologists, however, have found that there is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon.
In one instance, the 23 December 2000 issue of the British Medical Journal published two studies on dog bite admission to hospitals in England and Australia.
This can be seen in the testimony of Bede from The Reckoning of Time (CE 725), where lunar month names are equated with the approximate Roman equivalents.
This effect, combined with environmental factors such as dust, pollutants, or haze, can intensify or dull the Moon's color.
Clear skies often enhance the yellow or golden appearance, particularly during the autumn months when these full moons are observed.
Due to the high lunar standstill, the harvest and hunter's moons of 2007 were special because the time difference between moonrises on successive evenings was much shorter than average.
Hence, no long period of darkness occurred between sunset and moonrise for several days after the full moon,[25] thus lengthening the time in the evening when there is enough twilight and moonlight to work to get the harvest in.
Carver gave the names of the lunar months (starting from the first after the March equinox) as Worm, Plants, Flowers, Hot, Buck, Sturgeon, Corn, Travelling, Beaver, Hunting, Cold, Snow.
[26] Carver's account was reproduced verbatim in Events in Indian History (1841),[27] but completely different lists were given by Eugene Vetromile (1856)[28] and Peter Jones (1861).
[29] In a book on Native American culture published in 1882, Richard Irving Dodge stated:[30] There is a difference among authorities as to whether or not the moons themselves are named.
Maximillian gives the names of twelve moons; and Belden, who lived many years among the Sioux, asserts that "the Indians compute their time very much as white men do, only they use moons instead of months to designate the seasons, each answering to some month in our calendar."
My opinion is, that if any of the wild tribes have given conventional names to twelve moons, it is not an indigenous idea, but borrowed from the whites.Jonathan Carver's list of purportedly Native American month names was adopted in the 19th century by the Improved Order of Red Men, an all-white U.S. fraternal organization.
Deanna J. Conway's Moon Magick: Myth & Magick, Crafts & Recipes, Rituals & Spells (1995) gave as headline names for the lunar months (from January): Wolf, Ice, Storm, Growing, Hare, Mead, Hay, Corn, Harvest, Blood, Snow, Cold.
Before the days of good street lighting and car headlights, several organisations arranged their meetings for full moon, so that it would be easier for their members to walk, or ride home.
