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Becky
Full moons
by Becky - July 30, 2007 - 10:45 PM

sldkfjJuly 30–another full moon (and Blue, in some places of the world)–and another happy birthday for Jason. Because I’m a bit Procrustean, and because I have gypsy blood on my mother’s side, I have to say I abide by the adage that full moons summon something in people. Crime increases, it’s said, but more than that I think people just find themselves out on the streets, blackout-style, drawn like bits of industrial metal to some invisible lodestone. For instance, I’ve attended the Little Joy Reading Series for almost two years, and I’ve always found a full moon to wrangle in more people; predictably, a waning moon seems to distribute agoraphobia more evenly. I haven’t kept official stats (have to convince the ‘Joy to lend me their abacus), but maybe I will whenever it’s grant season again. Anyone else have attendance-related conjectures about full moons?

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Comments (9)

  1. My grandmother worked at a hospital when she was younger, and my girlfriend’s mother used to be a nurse at psychiatric facility. Both swear that more people came in on nights with full moons then any other time of the month.

    posted by Nathan on 7-31-2007 at 12:03 am

  2. Teachers frequently explain a surge of misbehavior in their students with “it’s a full moon”.

    posted by Kristen on 7-31-2007 at 8:04 am

  3. Back when I was still performing concerts, then raves, I noticed larger and more rowdy crowds around the full Moon (2-3 days prior or after).

    Didn’t collect gate statistics, tho, so my recollections are naturally suspect.

    posted by Doc on 7-31-2007 at 8:24 am

  4. Full moons probably put pro and amateur astronomers into grumpy moods–the light from it overpowers faint objects.

    posted by Eric on 7-31-2007 at 8:31 am

  5. Last night’s moon was beautiful. In Memphis, it was a copper/golden color and low in the sky.

    posted by DW on 7-31-2007 at 8:48 am

  6. I’ve been recording stats on full moons for years and can definately say there have been more bench-clearing incidents in baseball, as well as suicide bombings in Israel on full moons.

    Not meaning to go *there*, but many people report feeling randier when the moon is robust.

    posted by David on 7-31-2007 at 10:47 am

  7. From Nat’l Institutes of Health
    OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the lunar cycle on the frequency of deliveries and/or delivery complications. STUDY DESIGN: This was a retrospective cohort, secondary analysis of 564,039 births across 62 lunar cycles that were identified from North Carolina birth certificate data from 1997 to 2001. RESULTS: Using analysis of variance and t-tests, we found no significant differences in the frequency of births, route of delivery, births to multigravid women, or birth complications across the 8 phases of the moon or between documented high- and low-volume intervals of the lunar cycle. CONCLUSION: An analysis of 5 years of data demonstrated no predictable influence of the lunar cycle on deliveries or complications. As expected, this pervasive myth is not evidence based.

    posted by JaneM on 7-31-2007 at 12:33 pm

  8. There’s more about the lack of full moon effects over at skepdic.com… skepdic.com/fullmoon.html

    “If so many studies have failed to prove a significant correlation between the full moon and anything, why do so many people believe in these lunar myths?”

    posted by Eric on 7-31-2007 at 8:41 pm

  9. I have a friend who is a dentist in Springfield, Ohio. He says that more tooth emergencies occur during full moons. He hates being the on-call doctor at his clinic when it is a full moon.

    posted by Del on 8-5-2007 at 4:57 pm

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