Penny For Your Thoughts
By: Nancy Whitaker
CROONERS have sung about it, astronomers have studied it and man has walked on it. The moon has had a powerful influence on our lives since time began
I have always been a moon watcher, believed in the signs of the moon and I am in awe of the big light which brightens our way at night. The other night as coming home from a music gig, the moon was full and appeared to be so close that I felt like I could reach out and touch it. I told my friend, “I can see his face tonight.”
It is hard to fathom that people all over the world see the same moon and just how long that old moon has been spinning around. Now it has been said that when there is a full moon, that people tend to act different. I have heard it said, “Oh it’s a full moon tonight, wonder who is going to howl?” Also if you just want to act strange, you can blame it on the moon.
My Grandma, who hailed from Kentucky, practically lived her life by the signs of the moon. She planted her garden at a certain phase of the moon. She made cookies based on telling how damp it was going to be that day by the sign of the moon. She believed that if it was going to be rainy or damp, that her cookies would not turn out crispy.
Many times, prior to the world of television and the Internet, Grandma could predict a rainstorm by looking at the moon or maybe a dry spell. I also heard someone say not to put up a fence post in the full of the moon because it would not stay standing.
When I say I see the moons face, I think I see eyes, nose and a smiling mouth. However, legend says that the man in the moon is an old man carrying a bundle of sticks on his back, a forked stick, a lantern and being accompanied by a little dog. The German version of this story goes, “Ages ago, there went one Sunday morning an old man into the woods to hew sticks.”
“He cut a bunch and put them on a staff and headed home. On the way home, he met up with a stranger who was in his Sunday suit who was on his way to church.
“The stranger said, “’Don’t you know that this is Sunday and that all good Christians should be resting from their labours?”
The old man said, “I don’t care if it is Sunday or Monday in Heaven, it’s all the same to me.”
The the church goer then cursed the old man saying that he would bear his burden forever and banished him to the moon. Therefore, a Man in the Moon legend.
In China, the man in the moon is a symbol of love who unites a couple while in Alaska it is the keeper of souls.
It seems as if cabbages and other fleshy leaved plants are said to be sacred to the moon. It is said that if you leave the stump of a cabbage in the ground after harvest, it will grow small cabbages which we know as Brussel Sprouts. Some gardeners consider it important to cut a cross in the stump of a cabbage plant to encourage growth.
We are not all turning into werewolves or vampires (although one wonders where those stories come from) but it is an established fact that more crimes occur during a full moon. And if you observe your own mind during the full moon phase, you may also feel that everything during that period is just a little more hectic and intense.
There are a lot of legends connected to the moon and it is believed that you can tell a lot about the weather from the moon.
Do you like watching the moon and do you exhibit any weird behaviors during a full moon? Do you plant potatoes and your garden based on the moon signs? Let me know and I’ll give you a Penny for Your Thoughts.
