MOONLIGHT -- THE LUNAR SOCIETY -- FARMING BY THE MOON: 19 November 2002
EL e-mails to add to this site's growing lode of moon lore.
"Remember," he says, "that before street lighting and when the country districts were in unrelieved darkness after sunset, the full moon was looked forward to eagerly as a highly effective and free source of illumination. Every one hoped for it to appear in a cloudless sky. Social events were timed to coincide with it -- Jane Austen refers to the practice -- and in the early 1700s there was the group of distinguished men of high talent and vast influence who met on each Monday that was nearest to the full moon so that afterwards they could pick their way home with ease and with reduced threat from footpads. They called themselves the Lunar Society. Their full-moon meetings were for professional and learned discussions and debates. One of their inspirations was the canal system."
EL mentions also the dangers that brilliant moonlight can bring in war time, referring to the two world wars and the air raids of those times. Complementing this, there is the major piece of writing still buried in my computer (it did not make it into the pages of 'R J Harris's Moon Gardening'; see the link at the foot of the page) in which Mr Harris dwells upon the days when the only reliable calendar that the farmer had (and most other ordinary folk, come to that) was the moon. Its progress across the heavens dictated when to do almost everything linked to meat, vegetable, cereal and fruit production.
moon
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