
Moderaator: Meeskond
On the night between 2009 and 2010, Romanians will get two spectacular astronomic events: a partial moon eclipse and the famous Blue Moon, which appears when there are two full moons within one month, the 'Admiral Vasile Urseanu' Astronomic Observatory announced.
The partial moon eclipse will begin at 7:15 p.m. Romania time and the maximum stage will be reached at 9:22 p.m. The eclipse will end at 11:29 p.m., right in time to welcome the New Year.
"During the December 31 event, people will be able to see how the moon disc will grow dim and how, at peak point, less than half of the Moon, the lower side, will come under the Earth's shadow. The lunar disc will be split in two, a shiny part and another one (the one in the shadow), which will be reddish," the observatory's website says.
Moreover, we will also get a Blue Moon, the second full moon in December, an event which occurs every two or three years. The last month in which such an event was recorded was June 2007. The phenomenon will occur again in August, 2012.
The name "Blue Moon" first appeared in American-Indian folklore and was taken over by an American magazine in 1937, but it does not exist in specialized language.
In 1883, because of a very powerful eruption of Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia, people witnessed incredible events: almost every night, they were able to see the Moon in all its phases, colored in blue or green. According to researchers, the "blame" goes to volcano ashes lifted into the atmosphere. The ashes "colored" not only the Moon, but also the Sun, which was seen in lavender colors from Earth, while clouds were silver and the sunrise was very red.
In Romanian folklore, it is believed that on full moon nights, the sky opens up and animals are able to speak. And if this event happens on New Year's it means that the next year will be a prosperous one.
Tradition has it that on this night, werewolves emerge - people bitten by wolves or other werewolves. They retain their normal human appearance until the full moon. Then they change into wolf people and can be very aggressive, attacking even their best friends if they stand in their way. After turning back into people, they cannot remember anything from what they did while they were changed.
Stories about werewolves exist everywhere in the world, from South America, Asia, Iceland, Indonesia to northern Europe.
According to Herodotus, on the shore of the Black Sea there lived "tribes of people who changed into wolves and ate other human beings a few days every year." This only happened at night, because darkness is the time of evil and that was the only time when such atrocities could occur.
In medieval England, priests marked forest houses and roads to protect travelers from monsters' bloody attacks.
Kasutajad foorumit lugemas: Registreeritud kasutajaid pole ja 9 külalist