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C. Lee McKenzie

Young Adult and Middle Grade Author

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Monday Miscellany-Full Moon Harvest

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Here Come the Squash

A successful crop to harvest has everything to do with the Moon. That’s what my grandmother said. She planted her root and vine crops during certain phases of the Moon, her potatoes she dug in at set times, and then the clearing and hoeing she did at others. I still go along with the formula, and even though I live in a much less accommodating climate now than I did when I tagged after Grandma, I’m pretty successful.

And More Squash

This formula didn’t start with my grandmother, but I didn’t understand that. I also didn’t understand that this formula applied to so many more areas of our lives than planting and tilling until later when I read such notables as Hippocrates.

He described the effects of the Moon’s arc overhead on each part of the human body, believing that you should avoid any medical treatment of the head when the Moon is in Aries; when the heart’s in Leo, tell the physician you’ll pass on that bypass. If you plan to over indulge in a harvest meal, keep an eye on the calendar and be sure the Moon isn’t passing through Cancer, the ruler of the liver.

The mystery of lunar cycles and those of women are closely connected. Even the word menstruation comes from the Latin word, mensis, meaning month or Moon. Between 1949 and 1975 a Dr. W. Menaker kept a record of New York City’s births. Guess what? “. . . the majority of babies are born during the two days preceding and the two days following the full Moon, with a high point occurring on the night of the full Moon.”

Nonsense? Superstition? Maybe.

The Snake Charmer, Rousseau (1907)

One thing for sure is that the Moon has given us a lot of art, poetry and more werewolf tales than we’ll ever be able to read. You can’t have a werewolf howling at a so-so Moon, can you? Doesn’t it have to be at a full blown lunatic-provoking stage to bring those guys out?

Guess what we had last night?

Since this is about Miscellany, I have to add a thanks to the RACHWRITES and all the CAMPAIGNERS who are stopping by to say hi. See you at your blogs this week.

Comments

  5. That's so interesting about baby's being born around the full moon. I have a friend who does daycare, and she insists the kids are more wild when we have a full moon.

  7. This post is so interesting, and I hadn't heard that about the moon's astrological phases affecting certain parts of the body. Hadn't heard about planting and tilling things at certain phases of the moon either. I've heard about more babies being born and about emergency room personnel dreading full moons, and I read about that (since our MG series is called Monster Moon!) and there are naysayers who say it's all nonsense and there's no proof. But I like to think that it does affect us. It just seems to make sense to me, whether there's proof or not! Cool post, Lee.

  9. My daughter had one of her first sleepovers the other night, and that evening as we drove home with both little girls in the van they looked out the windows and started howling. Kids eh?

  11. We had a lovely moon last night and this morning I watched it set a well.
    I worked in a hospital for a while and everyone agreed, more people came to the emergency room on a full night than on any other.