Lunar year

“ But in the early ages of the world, when mankind were chiefly engaged in rural occupations, the phases of the moon must have been objects of great attention and interest,—hence the month, and the practice adopted by many nations of reckoning time by the motions of the moon, as well as the still more general practice of combining lunar with solar periods. The solar day, the solar year, and the lunar month, or lunation, may therefore be called the natural divisions of time. ”

“ In between lie the separate phases of the waxing and waning moon. The synodic month is the interval between two new moons and comprises on an average 29 days 12 hrs. 44 min. 2.98 secs. This is the true lunar month: other varieties of month are of no importance for us.
"The risings and settings of the stars. It has already been remarked that the sun in the course of a year runs through the zodiac backwards, so that one particular star culminates 3 min. 56 secs. earlier every day. ”

“ In 2other words, though the difference between a single solar year and a single lunar year is more than 11 days, it is possible, by taking a number of years together and reckoning them as lunar years, one or more of them being lengthened by an additional month, to make the whole period very nearly coincide with the same number of solar years. ”

“ Lū′nulite, a small circular fossil coral.—Lunar caustic, fused crystals of nitrate of silver, applied to ulcers, &c.; Lunar cycle=Metonic cycle (q.v.) ; Lunar month (see Month) ; Lunar observation, an observation of the moon's distance from a star for the purpose of finding the longitude; Lunar rainbow (see Rainbow, under Rain) ; Lunar theory, a term employed to denote the a priori deduction of the moon's motions from the principles of gravitation; Lunar year (see Year) . [L. lunaris—luna, the moon—lucēre, to shine.] ”

“ The moon, whose course through the heavens regulated the months of the early lunar year, and whose influence was regarded by the ancients, in common with that of the sun, as one of the fertilising principles of nature, and as exerted chiefly amid wilds and woods, at a distance from the crowded abodes of man, had in this spot, apparently, a peculiar claim for her special appropriation. ”

“ In ancient times ceaseless efforts were made to adjust the months to the measure of the year, but we have practically given up the attempt, and in our calendar the lunar months shift along as they will, while the ordinary months are periods of a certain number of days, having no relation to the movements of the moon. ”

“ But men have tried to connect them from the most remote ages, and have devised the lunar-solar year, the duration of which is related to the movements of the sun and the moon. Although this system may appear complicated, it is in reality quite simple, for the sun and moon spare man the trouble of calculating the days, while the years and months write themselves in large characters in the appearance of the sky and of vegetation. ”

“ Worm expressly states that these lunar months were still in use and began with the first new moon of the new year.
An account of connected lunar months among the East Finns has been translated and communicated to me by Professor Wiklund. The authority makes a man of the people speak as follows [1033] :—“The moon which is born while the winter day is still in his house (December 18–22) , or after [306] that, is the first heart- (middle-) moon. In this way the Christmas festival sometimes falls in the first heart-moon, and then we hope for a good harvest. ”

“ The apparent revolution of the moon around the earth was taken by the Mayas as the basis of a lunar calendar distinct from the civil calendar, but used in combination with it for various ceremonial purposes. Now the average duration of a lunar revolution is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.87 seconds. Twelve lunations amount to a little more than 354 days and are therefore far short of a true year. Primitive peoples whose principal interest is to keep the moon in adjustment with the seasons have an occasional thirteenth month in their luni-solar calendars. ”

“ The circle of changes through which the moon passes in about thirty days, is marked, in the earliest stages of language, by a word which implies the space of time which one such circle occupies; just 119 as the circle of changes of the seasons is designated by the word year. The lunar changes are, indeed, more obvious to the sense, and strike a more careless person, than the annual; the moon, when the sun is absent, is almost the sole natural object which attracts our notice; and we look at her with a far more tranquil and agreeable attention than we bestow on any other celestial object. ”

“ When the remainder is 0, the proposed year is of course the last or 19th of the cycle. It ought to be remarked that the new moons, determined in this manner, may differ from the astronomical new moons sometimes as much as two days. The reason is that the sum of the solar and lunar inequalities, which are compensated in the whole period, may amount in certain cases to 10°, and thereby cause the new moon to arrive on the second day before or after its mean time. ”

“ Thus by neglecting the invisible one, which would properly be called 28, 29 or 30, and which falls in the great interval between keunòngs 1 and 23, we get exactly one keunòng for each lunar month. This makes the calculation extremely easy, but it is obvious that as we advance we shall in time arrive at a month in which the keunòng we obtain by observation falls on a different date from that which the series would lead us to expect. It is in fact at the end not of a lunar, but a solar year, that the keunòngs revert to nearly the same interval of time separating them from the preceding new moon. ”

“ Only through their union does the complete year arise. Every natural year however offers on the whole the same phenomena following one another in definite succession, and thus the circle of the year has its prototype in Nature herself. Nevertheless the uniting of the different seasons into a complete year only takes place gradually by means of a selection, systematising, and regulation of the seasons. It must be carried out according to a principle—we shall see that this is as a rule the lunar reckoning—but the occupations of agriculture also serve as a handle. ”

“ To the east is reigning the brilliant lunar day, so long, so fierce, so hot; beyond it is evening, with sunset touching the mountain-peaks on the terminator; in the remotest west, midnight!
This is more than one can see on one's own terrestrial ball, where the vision is bounded by atmosphere, and objects "by degrees grow beautifully less."
One must not look at the full moon to view all these wonders, for seen through the telescope it is merely a brilliant, dazzling sphere; mountains, valleys, and plains are flooded with intensest light; no shadows fall; the white glitter is intolerable! ”

“ Just as the growth and dwindling of plants became associated with the moon’s wax and wane, so changes of weather became associated with changes of the moon, while, by astrologer’s logic, it did not matter whether the moon’s change were real, at new and full, or imaginary, at the intermediate quarters. That educated people to whom exact weather records are accessible should still find satisfaction in the fanciful lunar rule, is an interesting case of intellectual survival. ”

“ It might seem, that, since the moon rotates on her axis in about twenty-seven days, the lunar day ought to be twenty-seven days long, instead of twenty-nine. There is, however, a solar, as well as a sidereal, day at the moon, as on the earth; and the solar day at the moon is longer than the sidereal day, for the same reason as on the earth. During the solar day the moon must make both a synodical rotation and a synodical revolution. ”

“ The Lunar Day.—The lunar day is twenty-nine times and a half as long as the terrestrial day. Near the moon's equator the sun shines without intermission nearly fifteen of our days, and is absent for the same length of time. Consequently, the vicissitudes of temperature to which the surface is exposed must be very great. During the long lunar night the temperature of a body on the moon's surface would probably fall lower than is ever known on the earth, while during the day it must rise higher than anywhere on our planet.
Fig. ”

“ Now it is found that when at birth the Moon is increasing in light, that is, going towards the full, and above the horizon, or conversely, decreasing in light and below the horizon, the period from birth to inception is less than ten lunar months by a quantity determined by the Moon’s distance from the horizon. But when the Moon at birth is found to be decreasing and above the horizon, or increasing and below the horizon, the period of time from birth to inception is found to be more than ten lunar months by a quantity determined by the Moon’s distance from the horizon. ”

“ The day of the week on which the moon is new or full, is a question that awakens the most anxious concern. In the north of Italy Wednesday is dreaded for a lunar change, and in the south of France the inauspicious day is Friday. ”

“ The age of the moon here is actually less than it was in the photograph that we last examined, yet, in consequence of libration, which has caused the moon, in effect, to roll a little to one side, the sunlight is farther advanced toward the east, and we see many features of the lunar world that before had not yet emerged from night. ”

“ From this table the astronomical moons not only for Easter but for the whole year can be found without variation of more than a day for about three hundred and twelve years, at the end of which time the new moon will fall one day earlier, when a new set of epacts must be made, the first of which will be 1 instead of 0, and the succeeding ones will be changed correspondingly. To find the age of the moon for any day of the year, we add to the epact the date of the month, and one for every month from March inclusive, the epact for a year being eleven days, or a day a month nearly. ”

“ This argument simply is, that the moon as she travels on her orbit round the sun—the real centre of her motion—turns every part of her equator in succession towards him once in a lunar month. At the time of new moon the sun illuminates the face of the moon turned from us; at the time of full moon he illuminates the face which has been gradually brought round to him as the moon has passed through her first two quarters. ”

“ Each third of the lunar calendar consists of 30-and 29-day months arranged in alternating sequence, with intercalary days added by the substitution of a 30-day for a 29-day month when the error arising from the nonconformity of the moon’s revolution reaches more than one day. In order that the lunar calendar might agree with the eclipse calendar more closely, these months were recorded in groups of five and six. ”

“ The new moon, apart from its function of indicating the beginning of the lunar month, has also by many tribes been hailed with joy as a friend restored to life after seeming extinction.993 The full moon, while it has not entered so intimately into the emotional life of man, has played an important part by marking the division of the month into two equal parts. ”

“ We know that changes occur in the moon, from cold to heat, and from darkness to light. But the lunar day is as long as 291 of ours; so that each portion of the surface is exposed to, or turned from, the sun for nearly 14 days. This long exposure produces excessive heat, and the long darkness excessive cold. ”

“ The moon is the more powerful of the two perturbing bodies, hence the main tides are due to the moon; and its chief action is to cause a pair of low waves or oceanic humps, of gigantic area, to travel round the earth once in a lunar day, i.e. in about 24 hours and 50 minutes. The sun makes a similar but still lower pair of low elevations to travel round once in a solar day of 24 hours. ”

“ We have, it is true, been taught until very lately that the side of the moon turned sunward would grow hotter and hotter in the long lunar day, till it reached a temperature of two hundred to three hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and that in the equally long lunar night it would fall as much as this below zero. ”

“ The zodiacal light also, which in our English latitude and climate is but rarely seen and in more favourable 161 climes appears only when the sun itself is hidden beneath the horizon, would upon the moon be seen as a constant accompaniment to the luminary throughout his daily course across the lunar sky. The other planets would appear generally as they do to us on earth, but, never being lost in daylight, their courses among the stars could be traced with scarcely any interruption. ”

“ The same progress of events must continue, till, at some remote period in the future, the day has come to equal the month, lunar tidal action has ceased, and one face of the earth looks out always at the moon with that same fixed stare which even now the moon has been brought to assume towards her parent orb. ”

“ The moon makes her circuit of the heaven in twenty-eight days plus about an hour, and with her return to the sign from which she set forth, completes a lunar month. ”

“ The moon seems, as a learned author has observed, in almost every respect to be a body similar to our earth, to have its surface diversified by hill and dale, mountains and vallies, rivers and lakes. With regard to a lunar atmosphere, the existence of which has long been a subject of much dispute, it is now generally admitted.122 The irregularity of the moon’s surface, arising from hills and vallies, renders her more capable of reflecting the sun’s rays to us. ”

“ The name ‘Harvest Moon’ explains itself, since it always occurs at the time of the autumn harvests and the vintage, and seems to supplement the fading daylight for the benefit of late laborers in the fields. The ‘Harvest Moon’ does not occur every year at precisely the same date. It is very rare that Full Moon happens to fall just on September 22d. It usually either precedes or follows that date. The ‘Harvest Moon’ is the Full Moon which occurs nearest to the Autumn Equinox, either before or after. ”