In tune with the moon
he 29½-day cycle of moon phases was the earliest form of measuring time, and the present-day months are roughly equal to the lunar cycle. Each of the farming seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – lasts three months or three moon cycles, thus a year was made up of 12 full moons; the cycle of each following the same pattern. A new moon is completely black; over the next four nights, the moon ‘waxes’ or becomes more visible until a quarter, known as a ‘waxing crescent’, can be seen on the right side. Four nights later, half the moon, known as the ‘first quarter moon’, is visible. A couple of
