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Many folk tales, myths, and legends focus on the Moon.
Europeans once saw a face on the lunar surface and called it the Man in the Moon. He was thought to be jailed there for some bad crime. Hawaiians gazing at the Moon saw a woman. Mayans saw a rabbit. All of these Moon myths do have one thing in common. They were how people tried to explain something that seemed unexplainable.
▲ The first people to study the heavens seriously were astrologers in ancient Babylon. They looked at how the Sun, Moon, and stars lined up. They believed the patterns could bring good or bad luck. Astrology laid the base for the science of astronomy. But scientists now think of it as superstition.
◀ In 376 B.C., Athenian philosopher Anaxagoras (an-aks-AG-oo-ras) figured out why eclipses happen. He became the first person to do that. But he also said the Sun and Moon were not gods. For that, he was chased out of Athens.
▲ Ancient Chinese astronomers could tell when eclipses were coming. However, they also believed supernatural things happened. They thought the Moon’s shadow was an invisible dragon eating the Sun. They banged gongs and shot arrows into the sky to chase it off. People in Africa, North America, and the Pacific Islands have also used noise to “save” the Sun.
◀ In the Middle Ages, Europeans believed in werewolves. Those are people who change into wolves. The monsters were said to come out and attack folks during the full Moon.
In 1504, Christopher Columbus and his crew were stuck in Jamaica. The native people would not help them. Three days before a lunar eclipse was supposed to happen, Columbus got an idea. He told the chiefs that God was angry at them and would show it in the heavens. The chiefs didn’t believe him. When the eclipse began, they rushed to bring Columbus food. ▶
Check It Out!
When does “once in a blue Moon” really happen?
In 1946, the magazine Sky and Telescope made a mistake. It said that a blue Moon was a second full Moon in a calendar month. That was something rare. But a blue Moon is really the third full Moon during a season that has four full Moons. That’s also rare. Sky and Telescope did not catch the error until 1999. But by then, many people had learned the wrong definition. Now it is what most people believe.
The first calendars we know of followed the phases of the Moon. Today, we use the 365-day solar Gregorian calendar. That’s based on the time it takes Earth to orbit the Sun. The word month comes from the word moon. Months are based on the 29.5 days it takes to go from one new Moon to another. ▶
Johannes Kepler was an astronomer who studied the orbits of planets. He wrote that Moon craters were made by aliens. In the early 1800s, German astronomer F. P. Gruithuisen proved him wrong. He showed that craters form when objects hit the surface. But Gruithuisen also had some wrong ideas. He said he could see a walled city on the Moon!
Think Piece!
Painters and photographers look at how the Moon seems to change. This is a painting by Vincent van Gogh. What mood do you think he was trying to show in it?
◀ The Moon has been a symbol in some religions for a long time. You can see the crescent Moon on top of Muslim places of worship. They are called mosques. It is also on the flags of some Muslim countries, such as Turkey.
