The Full Moon, some Folklore, and Coral Reefs!

The Full Moon will be out tonight shining brightly for all of us to marvel at!

Pause to stare out your window for a chance to view this most beautiful Full Moon tonight, or even take a moonlight stroll on the Seawall.

Such a glorious round ball in our sky whispering folklore, and lightly dancing upon the oceans surface is worthy of our attention, don’t you think?

A full moon doesn’t happen every night, but only when it is on the opposing side of the Earth away from the Sun. The Sun then is able to illuminate the moon, while leaving the other half of the moon in pure darkness. Each cycle takes roughly 28 days of your life!

We have named these full moons and kept track of them in our numerous cultural calendars for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Every culture has their own ideas of what happens to people, and the world at large, when a full moon comes out at night.

Interestingly, Folklore proposes people can and have gone crazy during a full moon, or, people may act abnormally.  In our modern times, we may notice someone driving dangerously and relate their poor driving to their being a Full moon out.  And dogs may be prone to biting and barking more than usual, or so they say.

These unusual observations are not for certain by any means, merely they are observations passed down by people to other people, discussed, and who knows by how many people, or if they hold very much weight at all!

In trying to bring some reason to the behaviour and actions of humans when there is a full moon, Psychologists among other people have spent their time performing studies on people when there is a full moon out, yet there are no firm conclusions drawn.  It is still up for debate.

I do think that folklore is quite right about a person loosing sleep when there is a full moon, but I think this could be, more than anything due to the brighter nights sky! Who wants to sleep with the lights on, even a natural light.

Fascinatingly, Scientists have recently found that right after a full moon, the Great Barrier Reefs in Australia begin their mass spawning festivities that can occur over hundreds of Kilometers. If you are interested in this most amazing discovery and why, click here.

Bottom-line, enjoy the moon tonight, and as for stargazing, better to do that when the moon isn’t so bright!

Out of my own curiousness,  what effects have the moon had on you, if any?  What do you think, do people become more emotional, drive poorly, and act irrational when there is a full moon?

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