Three strange hypotheses about the full moon

Full moon have always been regarded as something mystical - and from the ancient times to modern days, there are several hypotheses and beliefs that surround those days when a full moon can be seen of the night sky. While some might see it as a sinister foreshadow, others suppose it is somehow in connection with fertility or even certain mental conditions. But do the full moon actually have all these effects on our lives?

Some suppose full moons can have a great impact on our lives (Photo: pixabay.com / Bess Hamiti)

Some people believe that full moon is somehow connected to strange or even mad-like behavious, while others suppose that only the fact that there's a full moon on the night sky will make crimes, violence and even sleep-walking more likely to happen - not to speak of the risk of werewolves and other terrific creatures walking around...

Interestingly enough, there was a time when even physicians thought that there was a connection between strange behavior and full moon. One of the first of them, Hippocrates for example thought that those who experience sudden fear and madness during full moon are visited by the goddess of the Moon. But long, long after the 5. century BC, even in the 18. century, people in England believed that the full moon has negative effects on mental health, thus there were times when doing a criminal act was punished less seriously when it was committed during a full moon. During this time, some psychiatries bind the patients during certain Moon cycles to prevent them from raging.

Later, studies failed to find any connection between the full moon and strange behaviors, but many still believe that the Moon can somehow have an impact on people's mental health.

Female fertility and the Moon has long been associated with each other, but the reason is mainly just the similar length of the menstrual and the Moon cycles. Many ancient cultures believed so much in the connection that they supposed that the Moon could have a strong impact on when women can get pregnant. The latter can also explain why most ancient goddesses who were related to the Moon were actually thought of as female entities.

While many people still believe that more children are born during full moons, according to studies, this is simply not true. The numbers of children born on these days do not differ significantly from the number of children born during other Moon cycles, and most scientists refuse the idea that the Moon could have any impacts on fertility, pregnancy or births.

There are also some modern day beliefs about the full moon that are quite popular even these days. One on these is that there more accidents seem to happen during full moons than on days when we don't see just as much of the Moon.

What's rather interesting is that the researchers of the veterinary clinic of the Colorado Sate University found out in one of their researches that pet animals could actually tend to have a higher risk of accidents happening to them during full moons. They analyzed 11 940 cases, and found that on the average, cats needed 23 percent more emergency treatments on full moon days, while this number way 28 percent for dogs. The researchers did not, however, found the reason of this connection. Yet, as for people, another study found no connection between the numbers of accidents and the Moon cycle. For this study, researchers looked at 150 999 emergency cases.

Anita Diós

February 2019