Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889–1977) is considered one of the first movie stars ever and made film history with his acting and his works. He is also one of the few artists who managed the transition from silent films to sound films.
Because of using archetypal imagery and symbols in his films, it is natural that the moon could also play a part somewhere. We found four references:
We are looking again at China, where next to the moon festival in autumn, an event is celebrated at the beginning of the year, which is also connected to the full moon: the Lantern Festival (»Yuanxiao«). This celebration is traditionally held on the 15th day of the first moon month of the old Chinese calendars and therefore coincides (more or less exactly) with the full moon. The Lantern Festival indicates the end of the Chinese New Year ceremonies.
Let’s begin the New Year 2011 with the opening of the full moon blog. A true innovation to the full moon pages.
For everyone, who is not quite sure what a blog is, let’s say it is a kind of an Internet diary. The word »blog« is an abbreviation of »weblog«, which again derives from »web« (for Internet) and »logbook«, a term used in maritime shipping for recording daily events. Interestingly enough, it is mentioned in WIKIPEDIA that logbooks are of great importance in legal cases involving maritime commercial disputes, and therefore mandatory to be kept and not on a voluntary basis. As blogger (name of someone who writes in a blog), we certainly would not keep this rule, but encourage spontaneous participation and think it should be fun, and whenever possible, we will establish a connection to the full moon.
This is about how to differentiate the waxing moon from the waning moon in the sky. »Waxing« is known to be the lunar phase between the new moon and the full moon (meaning the time when the crescent increases in size), whereas »waning« is known to be the lunar phase between the full moon and the new moon (the time when the crescent decreases in size). In order to remember on which side the curve is, here are some neat mnemonics.
… this line from the poem “Evening Song” from 1778, by the poet Matthias Claudius (1740–1815), belongs to the best-known poems in German literature, not least of all because it was set to music many times; hence, it does not only remain in one’s memory because of its lyrics, but also because of its melody. Especially as a lullaby, everyone has surely heard it before or even sang it to the children:
You always hear that certain things should be done or left undone at certain phases of the lunar cycle, also during a full moon. You can believe it or not. It surely cannot be proven and to be honest, we are quite skeptical with regards to the attribution of human activities and lunar events. However, we would not like to exclude it – after all neither the efficacy nor the inefficacy of such theses has been proven. As long as you don’t get caught in your own convictions, it is part of people’s liberty to create their lives freely.
Everyone is familiar with the silhouette of the Stonehenge rocks in the southern English county of Wiltshire, one of the truly ancient structures of human kind that continues to fascinate because of its archaic construction and mystical presence. Maybe it reminds us people of our origin and of something we often tend to forget amid our hectic everyday world: simplicity.
At the same time, the building of Stonehenge has been everything but easy back then. The age of the grounds is estimated to be more than 5000 years. Experts assume, it took many millions of working hours to dress and transport the up to 50 tons heavy rocks by hand and to erect them in the well-known formation. In particular the lintels, on top of the upright stones, leave us in awe.
Paul Klee (1879–1940) was a German painter and graphic artist, one of the biggest names of the Classic Modern Era, being the time at the beginning and first half of the 20th century, which was expressed in so many different styles and is nowadays regarded as avant-garde of that time. Paul Klee created cubistic, expressionistic and surrealistic paintings. The names of his friends read like the »who’s who« in the art scene: August Macke, Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Walter Gropius, Robert Delaunay, Lyonel Feininger, Alexej von Jawlensky, Pablo Picasso …
Many people dream about making a journey into space sometime, or setting foot on a celestial body. And despite the fascinating images and movie footages we are able to enjoy here on Earth, the wish remains to experience this sight for ourselves. The German scientist and astronaut Ulrich Walter, recently related that the view onto the Earth in weightlessness and the realization not to be the centre, would change the individual thinking in a profound way. »Up there« in space, he was always happy.
Other than the moonstone, there are more minerals with the Moon being part of their name: the moonlight topaz. The topaz is a compound of aluminum, fluorine and silicon and has the hardness value of 8, on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness from 1 (= selenite) to 10 (= diamond). Which means it is a very hard mineral. Topazes exist worldwide, but most findings originate in Brazil. When conditions are favorable for the growth of this mineral, their weight can easily reach up to 220 lb and more. The biggest topaz that was ever found, was 3.3 ft long and weighed 2.5 tons (Mozambique, Africa).
When the sunlight appears on the Moon’s surface in a flat angle, interesting lighting effects are created, due to the mountains and valleys, which can be observed quite well from the Earth. A well-known effect is the so called »golden handle«. This is when the Jura Mountains (»Montes Jura«) are illuminated 4 to 5 days before the full moon and appear as a bright arc, in front of the still darkened Sea of Showers (»Sinus Iridum«) of the Mare Imbrium. This is reinforced by the fact that the boundary of light and shadow, which is called »terminator«, runs directly through this area.