![]() In ancient Egypt, there are many references to the moon as being the god Thoth. Many religious Chinese people prepare their ritualistic offerings to their ancestors and deities on every full moon and new moon. The Lantern Festival falls on the first full moon of the year. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the full moon of the eighth month. ![]() The full moon is always the middle of a month. The traditional Chinese calendar is based on the phases of the moon. “By day the sun shall not smite thee, and the moon in the night." (cxxi6) It was thought that sleeping under a full moon could cause madness. In a psalm in the Talmud, the Hebrews made clear that they felt the moon could have ill effects. Like Nanna, in the Old Testament the Hebrew god is often described as a bull, and the Islamic holy month Ramadan had its origin in an ancient lunar holiday. ![]() Nanna was often depicted as a white bull who flew through the heavens, an ancient idea which may have been the origin of the European fairy tale of the "cow who jumped over the moon".īoth the Muslims and Hebrews are descendents of the Babylonians, so it comes as no surprise that even to this day, both religions still feature a lunar calendar and count "new days" and holidays as beginning at nightfall. The artificial mountain known as the Ziggurat was the "House of Nammar", or the "House of Heaven". Here, the moon god Nanna or Nammar ruled as the supreme deity of measurement and calendar calculations. Some of the oldest references come from ancient Sumer. The moon has played a predominant role in many societies throughout history.
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