Moon Myths 2

In reading about the full Moon names for my monthly posts on this blog, I have come across a lot of moon lore. Much of it is unattached to particular full Moons, so the information has just been piling up in a document on my computer. So, I decided to collect that information into some very loose thematic threads.

Here’s a second group of lunar beliefs, traditions and superstitions.

1. Good luck will come your way if you first see the New Moon outside and over your right shoulder. You also make a wish that will be granted. The best luck came from looking at the Moon straight on.
2.  To see the crescent Moon over the right shoulder was considered lucky, but seeing it over the left shoulder was unlucky.
3. If you move to a new house or location during a waning Moon, it will ensure you never go hungry.
4. In medieval Europe and England, “Moon’s men” were thieves and highwaymen who plied their trade by night. The current term “moonlighting” is similar, meaning to hold down and additional night job.
5. Many cultures felt that it was extremely unlucky to point at the Moon, and that curtseys to the Moon would bring a present before the next change of Moon.
6. It was often said that if a person was born at a Full Moon, he or she would have a lucky life.
7. A waning Moon was considered an unlucky time for a marriage or birth.
8. The Irish say that to see the future, for good or ill, take a mirror outside. Let the light of the Moon fall on the surface and stare into it. Any face that appears will be connected with your future.
9. In Ireland, it is said that if you walk nine times around a faery rath (hill) at the Full Moon, you will be able to find the entrance.
10.  In Italy they say that if the Moon changes on a Sunday, there will be a flood before the month is out.
11. In Cornwall, they said that if a birth took place during the waxing Moon, the next child would be the same sex as the one just born.