Full Moon Madness

WEDNESDAY. The moon is full tonight. Beware! Strange things happen during the full moon! Dogs bite! People murder! Loonies wander the streets! Or do they? According to National Geographic, the frequency of strange behaviors is no more likely to occur during the full moon than any other night.

Simon Chapman at the University of Sydney in Australia compared dates of admission for dog bites to public hospitals in Australia with dates of the full moon over a twelve month period and found no positive relation between the full moon and dog bites.

Regardless of what the studies say, the power of the moon is often used to explain a wide range of events, from human insanity, violent crimes, and traffic accidents to putting people in a celebratory and romantic mood.

Why? "One reason is that people have selective memories," said Chudler. "When something unusual happens and there is a full moon, people might notice the moon and assign blame."

Another mistake, according to Chudler, is failing to make the distinction between correlation and causation. He notes that just because a study finds a relationship between a full moon and certain behavior, it does not mean the moon caused this behavior (National Geographic, Feb. 6, 2004).

This means I no longer have an excuse for behaving badly during a Full Moon. Darn, and just when I was starting to have fun.

The article goes on to explain that for every positive study, there's a negative study. In other words, there is and there isn't a correlation between the full moon and unusual behaviors touted in folklore for centuries.

In the Native American tradition, the January full moon is the Wolf Moon.

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year.

Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January's full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon." (Farmer's Almanac, "Full Moon Names and Their Meanings").

I hope you'll join me in howling at the moon this evening. It's the only thing that makes sense. There's absolutely nothing on TV.