Chapter V: Lunar Superstitions and Festivals (1)

There is good reason for believing that among many primitive peoples the moon, rather than the sun, the planets, or any of the constellations, first excited the imagination and aroused feelings of superstitious awe or of religious veneration. The worship of the moon is widespread; and in various mythologies that luminary, often conceived as masculine, plays the most important part among the heavenly bodies.[337] “That the moon has certain effects on moist substances, that they are apparently subject to her influences, that, for instance, increase and decrease in ebb and flow develop periodically and parallel with the moon’s phases, all this is well known to the inhabitants of seashores and seafaring people. Likewise physicians are well aware that she affects the _humores_ of sick people, and that the fever-days revolve parallel with the moon’s course. Physical scholars know that the life of animals and plants depends upon the moon, and experimentalists know that she influences marrow and brain, eggs and the sediments of wine in casks and jugs, that she excites the minds of people who sleep in full moonlight, and that she affects (?) linen clothes which are exposed to it. Peasants know how the moon acts upon fields of cucumbers, melons, cotton, etc., and even make the times for the various kinds of sowing, planting, and grafting, and for the covering of the cattle depend upon the course of the moon. Lastly, astronomers know that meteorologic occurrences depend upon the various phases through which the moon passes in her revolutions.”[338] This succinct statement, by a learned Mohammedan of the eleventh century, of the reasons which led early philosophers to attach a special significance to the moon, may well serve as a text for elucidation and illustration.

It is a widespread and ancient belief, found among peoples in all stages of culture, that the lunar rays are deleterious, especially to little children. Some Brazilian Indians, for instance, believe that the moon makes babies ill; hence mothers, immediately after delivery, will hide themselves and their infants in the thickest part of the forest, in order to prevent the moonlight from falling on them.[339] Yao boys, when undergoing initiation into manhood, are told to avoid not only a menstruating woman but also the sight of the new moon, since both are dangerous.[340] Greek nurses took special pains never to show their charges to the moon.[341] In modern Germany it is an injunction of peasant folklore never to point out the moon to young children.[342]

Moonshine may also be deemed injurious to adults. Certain Queensland aborigines will not stare long at the moon, for by doing so a heavy rain is likely to result.[343] The Bushmen of South Africa avoid looking at the moon.[344] The Chukchi of northeastern Siberia believe that a man who looks too long at the moon may be bereft of his wits, or may be carried away altogether. The moon, think the Chukchi, has a lasso with which he catches the unlucky starer.[345] When an English traveller in Arabia was noticed gazing at the radiant desert moon, the Bedouin said, “Look not so fixedly on him; it is not wholesome.”[346] The same idea seems to have found expression in one of the most beautiful of the _Psalms_: “The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.”[347] Two New Testament passages illustrate the belief that epilepsy may be caused by the lunar rays.[348] Similarly, the Babylonians believed that Sin, the moon-god, could provoke leprosy, dropsy, and, above all, fever, which, like the lunar phases, has its periods of growth, culmination, and decline.[349] Plutarch refers to the assumed fact that those who sleep abroad under the beams of the moon are not easily wakened, but seem stupid and senseless.[350] This fear of the noxious influences of moonshine may be traced from classical times to the present day. French peasants consider it dangerous to sleep in the moonlight.[351] German peasants subject themselves to a long list of restrictions: no work, and especially no spinning, must be done in the moonlight, for the spun yarn would not hold, or the spinner would be spinning for her child a hangman’s halter or the linen of a shroud; no waggon or tools should be left exposed to the moonshine, for they would soon be broken; washed clothes should not be hung out to dry in the moonlight, for he who wore them would become moonstruck; one who sews by moonlight sews his own graveclothes; water from a spring or well in which the moon shines should not be drunk, since this would be to absorb the evil influences of the moon; one should never look long at the moon, under penalty of getting a goitre; the lunar rays should never penetrate into the kitchen, or otherwise the maid would break many dishes.[352] So numerous, indeed, are these lunar superstitions that throughout Germany Monday, as partaking of the qualities of the moon from which it is named, is generally an unlucky day.[353] In various parts of the United States the belief prevails that it is dangerous to sleep with the moon shining on the face. If fish are exposed to moonshine, they will spoil.[354]

Various peoples have noticed that monthly periodicity belongs to women and moon alike, and, joining these observations, have supposed that the lunar changes cause menstruation, or that the first appearance of the menses is the result of defloration induced by the moon. As a natural outcome of such beliefs the moon is credited with the power of impregnation and is associated with childbirth.[355] Such superstitions are widespread. In the native legends of the Euahlayi, a tribe of New South Wales, Bahloo, the moon, is a very important personage. He it is who creates the girl babies. Euahlayi mothers are very careful not to look at the full moon or to let their babies do so, for an attack of thrush, an affection common in newly born children, would be the result. Bahloo has also a spiteful way of punishing a woman who stares at him by sending to her the dreaded twins.[356] In Saibai and Yam, two islands in Torres Straits, it is believed that the moon, in the shape of a man, embraces a girl when she is full-grown, and that the halo around the moon represents her blood. This story is also told on the neighbouring coast of British New Guinea.[357] Here, as well as in some parts of Melanesia, natives ascribe menstruation to the moon.[358] The Tuhoe, a Maori tribe, believe that the moon is the permanent (or true) husband of all women, because the latter menstruate when the moon appears. “According to the knowledge of our ancestors and elders,” say the Tuhoe, “the marriage of man and wife is a matter of no moment, the moon is the real husband.” And the women themselves, on seeing the new moon, say, “The _tane_ (husband) of all women in the world has appeared.”[359] The Jaluo, a tribe of Nilotic stock living in the district of Kavirondo, British East Africa, ascribe menstruation to the influence of the new moon and believe that women can become pregnant only at this time.[360] The Baganda suppose that menstruation is caused by the moon, either when new or waning.[361] Similar beliefs are entertained by the negroes of the western Sudan, who commonly give to this female function the name of the moon.[362] The Greenlanders believe that the moon, conceived as a masculine divinity, possesses the power of impregnation; as a consequence young girls are afraid to look long at this luminary, “imagining they might get a child by the bargain.”[363] The Lengua Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco associate the moon with marriage. Young girls will address the moon with the appeal “Moon, moon, I want to get married.”[364] Indian women in Peru are said to have prayed to the moon to give them an easy delivery.[365] In old Egyptian belief the moon was supposed to make women fruitful, and the waxing moon to develop the germ in the mother’s body.[366] The association of human fertility with the moon may perhaps explain why Ishtar, the mother-goddess of Babylonian mythology, came to be regarded as a daughter of Sin, the moon-god. In this capacity she presided over childbirth.[367] The Iranian peoples supposed that the moon contained a bull whose semen was another form of _haoma_, the intoxicating decoction of the moon-plant.[368] The position of Hera as a goddess of marriage and childbirth has been explained by the assumption that she played an ancient rôle as a moon-deity. Artemis, with whom Selene, or the divine personification of the moon, came to be identified, was regularly associated with childbirth. The Roman Juno was connected with the moon as Juno-Lucina, it being held that she aided women during confinement. Ancient mythologers found it easy to identify the Italian Diana, originally a goddess who looked after women in their time of peril, with the Greek Artemis, who had the same functions.[369] Modern French folklore still contains references to the idea that the moon can cause impregnation; in Basse-Bretagne, for example, it is thought that a young woman who exposes her person to the lunar rays may conceive and bear a child.[370]

The influence of the moon on the tides furnishes another element of mystery in the lunar phenomena. So primitive a people as the Andaman Islanders habitually refer tidal movements to the action of the moon; and the same connection between things lunar and things terrestrial has been recognized by other peoples, such as the Hawaiians, the ancient Babylonians, and the modern Chinese.[371] That changes in the moon are associated with weather changes as cause and effect is an ancient superstition not yet obsolete in rural communities.[372]

Comparative studies have shown how very general is the belief that the moon exerts great influence on growth, particularly on the growth of vegetation, and on all human life and activity.[373] For this opinion there appear to have been two principal causes. Observation showed that moisture in the air and soil are favourable to organic growth and, further, that atmospheric moisture is greater at night than during the day. It was reasonable to suppose the moon itself to be the source of dew and moisture, especially when it was also noticed that the dew is heaviest on cloudless nights. These beliefs were entertained by the ancients, who attributed heat to the sun, but moisture to the moon.[374]

Another fallacy has had an even greater part in generating these lunar fancies. The apparent growth of the moon in the first half of the lunation is associated with the ripening of plants and fruits, the increase of animals, and hence with the prosperous issue of human undertakings. From this doctrine of lunar sympathy have arisen numerous rules for the guidance of shepherds and husbandmen, which had a wide prevalence in antiquity and still survive with almost undiminished vigour among the superstitious classes of to-day.[375]

The doctrine of lunar sympathy, by a natural extension, may also account for the common belief that “the same things which grow with the waxing, dwindle with the waning, moon,”[376] and therefore that all business done in the latter half of a lunation is doomed to failure. The Toda appear to regard the first half of the month as the auspicious time for their numerous ceremonies. “I met with no case,” says Dr. Rivers, “in which any ceremony was appointed for the period of the full moon or for the second half of the moon’s period.”[377] The Andaman Islanders abstain from work during the first few evenings of the third quarter of the moon.[378] The Buriat are said never to undertake anything of importance between the full and the new moon.[379] The Tatars, according to the account of an Italian friar who in the thirteenth century made an adventurous journey to Mongolia, began any new enterprise “at new moon, or when the moon is full.”[380] The Mandingo paid great attention to the changes of the moon and thought it “very unlucky to begin a journey or any other work of consequence in the last quarter.”[381] Of the Sudanese negroes, generally, it is said that they are much influenced in their undertakings by the appearance of the new moon. For instance, a journey which has been decided upon during the last quarter of the moon is always postponed until the new moon. No chief would presume to lead out his tribesmen on a war party before the appearance of the crescent.[382] The Nandi celebrate their very important circumcision festival, as well as all marriage ceremonies, during the waxing moon, but perform their mourning rites during the waning moon.[383] The Hova and other tribes of Madagascar regard the waning of the moon as “an unfavourable time for any important undertaking.”[384] Similar beliefs were entertained by the early Germans, who, according to Cæsar, despaired of victory if they engaged in battle before the new moon.[385] Tacitus, with fuller knowledge, declares that the Germans considered the new moon and the full moon as the most auspicious seasons for beginning any enterprise.[386] This superstition seems still to linger in some districts of Germany, where it is commonly held that any work begun when the moon is on the increase is sure to succeed, and that the full moon brings everything to perfection; whereas business undertaken during the waning moon is doomed to failure.[387] A like belief was that of the Scottish Highlanders, to whom the moon in her increase, full growth, and wane was “the emblem of a rising, flourishing, and declining fortune. At the last period of her revolution they carefully avoid to engage in any business of importance; but the first and the middle they seize with avidity, presaging the most auspicious issue to their undertakings.”[388] On the other hand the people of Thermià (Kythnos), one of the Cyclades, believe that you should never do any work, if you can help it, on the days preceding full moon, while for grafting, planting, cutting trees, and bleaching clothes those days are best which follow the full moon.[389] And an English antiquarian of the seventeenth century declares that, according to the rules of astrology, “it is not good to undertake any business of importance in the new of the moon; and not better just at the full of the moon; but worst of all in an eclipse.”[390]

Eclipses of the moon are sometimes considered unfavourable for work, and may also be accompanied by fasting and other forms of abstinence. During such times of uncanny and terrifying darkness it is thought to be wise to avoid every sort of activity, as well as the consumption of food which may be tainted with mysterious evil.[391] Among the Wasania, a tribe of British East Africa, no cohabitation takes place during an eclipse.[392] Lunar and solar eclipses are among the phenomena which require a Naga community to declare a _genna_ and give up its ordinary occupations.[393] When the Toda know that an eclipse is about to occur, they abstain from meat and drink; when it is over, they have a feast and eat a special food prepared on all ceremonial occasions.[394] In southern India it is a common custom, when an eclipse occurs, for the people to retire into their houses and remain behind closed doors. “The time is in all respects inauspicious, and no work begun or completed during this period can meet with success; indeed, so great is the dread, that no one would think of initiating any important work at this time.”[395] The natives of northern India are said to consider it a great crime to partake of food, drink water, or answer the calls of nature during an eclipse.[396] Such a period is considered most unlucky for commencing any business of importance. A pregnant woman will do no work during an eclipse, as otherwise her child would be deformed. Among high-caste Hindus no food which has been in the house during an eclipse of the sun or the moon may be eaten. It must be given away, and all earthen vessels in use in the house at the time must be broken.[397] The Chinese formerly observed lunar eclipses by a general suspension of business.[398] The fatal delay which led to the destruction of the Athenian fleet and army before Syracuse was the result of a lunar eclipse, as interpreted by the soothsayers and the incompetent, superstitious Nicias.[399] Among the Jews there were formerly many who abstained from food on the day of an eclipse of the moon, a portent which they regarded as evil.[400] This belief, as has been noted, prevailed in England at least as late as the seventeenth century.[401]

Various peoples have supposed that the moon, during the period of her invisibility, descends to the underworld. This conception has played a noteworthy part in generating superstitions concerning tabooed and unlucky days. The Akamba, a tribe of British East Africa, believe that on the day which completes the month no child is born and no domestic animal gives birth. One of the Akamba clans is called _mu-mwei_ (_mwei_ signifying moon), and by the members of this clan no house may be swept on the last day of the month.[402] The Akikuyu, a tribe related to the Akamba, regard the moon as the sun’s wife, and suppose that when the moon comes to maturity the sun fights with her and kills her. While she is “dead,” as the natives say, no journeys are undertaken, no sacrifices are offered, and no sheep are killed. It is further considered that goats and sheep will not bear on the day after the disappearance of the moon.[403] The Wagiriama keep as Sabbaths the odd days at the end of the month, before the appearance of the new moon.[404] Some tribes of equatorial Africa believe that the new moon is especially ill-humoured and hungry on the day when she emerges from darkness. “She looks down over our country,” the natives declare, “and seeks whom she can devour, and we poor black men are very much afraid of her on that account, and we hide ourselves from her sight on that night.” People who die between new and full moon are said to be those whom the new moon saw at this fateful time, in spite of all the precautions they took.[405] The missionary, David Livingstone, while sojourning at Lake Nyassa, discovered that the natives in this region regarded the _interlunium_ as distinctly unlucky. On one occasion his men delayed an expedition till they had seen the new moon. We must have the new moon, they said, for a lucky starting.[406] The “dark day” of the moon was considered by the Zulu as inauspicious for engaging in battle.[407]

A superstitious attitude toward the _interlunium_ appears to be very prevalent among the Dravidian peoples of India. The Kanarese of Hyderabad and Mysore do not work in the fields on the last day of the month. If a child is born at this time, they believe that some one in the family will die. If a cow or a buffalo has a calf at such a time, it must be sold. On the evening before new moon no one may eat cooked food. The new moon is consecrated to the dead.[408] The Saoria of the Rajmahal Hills, who regard Sunday as unlucky and do not work in the fields, pay visits, or get married on this day, observe much the same restrictions during the period of the moon’s invisibility. Marriages will not be fruitful if consummated during the dark of the moon, and in general the time is associated with bad luck and sickness.[409] The same belief is found elsewhere in northern India, sometimes with beneficial results, as appears from the following description, which applies to the district of Rohtak. “To-day (29th November, 1883), in passing through the Jât and Ahîr villages in Rohtak, I noticed that no work was being done at the wells or in the fields, and that the peasants, usually so hard at work, were idling in the village instead. On inquiring the reason, I was told that to-day was the _amâwas_, the last day of the moon, and that on this day of the month the bullocks are always given a rest. The men themselves do any work that is to be done without using the cattle, but no one yokes his bullocks in the plough or at the well, or, if he can help it, in the cart. I noticed that some of the peasants were busy making thorn-fences, or doing other light work, but no bullocks were at work anywhere, and as there is little to be done at this season without their help, the custom practically gave the men a rest also, and the unusual idleness gave the villages a sort of Sunday look. The bullocks are given this rest once a month, on the last day of the moon, and also on the _makar kâ sankrânt_, which comes about January, when the sun enters into the sign of Capricorn (_makar_), and on the _dîwâlî_ and _gôrdhan_ (the day after the _dîwâlî_) in the middle of Kârtik (October). Except on these fifteen days it is lawful for a man to yoke his cattle on all other days of the year, but these particular days are strictly a Sabbath for the cattle, and no one thinks of yoking them on these days. If any one did, it would be a sin (_pâp_), and his fellows would at once stop him. There is no such Sabbath for man, and it is not thought wrong (_pâp_) for a man to work on any day of the year, though, of course, there are many holidays (_têohâr_), on which little work is done.”[410]

These superstitions relating to the dark of the moon have not been confined to the natives of Africa and the aborigines of India. They meet us among peoples of archaic civilization and they survive among the peasantry of European lands. To the Babylonians, who paid particular attention to all lunar phenomena, the disappearance of the moon at the end of the month occasioned much anxiety. The day when the moon could no longer be seen in the heavens was called the “day of sorrow” (_ûm bubbuli_, literally, the “day of the snatching away”). The absence of the moon was reckoned at three days, and during this time prayers were recited and solemn expiatory rites were prescribed, primarily for the king, who, as the representative of his people, had to take special care not to provoke the gods to anger at so critical a season. We still have one of the prayers recited by the ruler in his sanctuary and addressed to the moon-god Sin. The thirtieth day of the month is here described as the god’s “holy day” or “festival.” The prayer concludes with an allusion to an eclipse, from which it appears that the Babylonians, knowing neither the cause nor nature of such a phenomenon, supposed that, unless the gods were pacified during the moon’s temporary obscuration, there would follow the more terrifying portent of an eclipse.[411] Modern Arabs consider the last day or last three days of the month to be unfavourable for any sort of undertaking.[412] By the Athenians these three days were called ἀσέλινοι, because on them the moonlight was extinguished. They were classed with the other unlucky days (ἀποφράδες ἡμέραι) of popular superstition. During the ἀσέλινοι it was necessary to sacrifice to the underworld gods in order to avoid their anger.[413] Selene at this time was supposed to descend to the underworld and the abode of shades; hence the moon came to be associated with Persephone.[414] The Romans do not appear to have marked the _interlunium_ or _intermenstruum_ by any special observances. European folklore, however, still preserves traces of the ancient superstition, as in the Cornish belief that a child, so unfortunate as to be born at this time, will never live to attain the age of puberty. Hence the saying, “No moon, no man.”[415] Similar beliefs would seem to survive in the very common idea that the three days before the new moon are especially unlucky and likely to be attended by storms and winds.[416]

We may well believe that the different appearances of the moon were the first celestial phenomena observed with any degree of continuous attention by primitive man. Not only are the phases of the moon marked by striking variations in her form and in the amount of light she radiates, but from night to night she follows a regular path through the sky, changing her elevation above the horizon and appearing to occupy at her successive phases different quarters of the heavens. Such phenomena present elements of mystery not found in the sun’s prosaic course. A survey of the anthropological evidence appears to indicate, as might indeed be expected, that of the lunar phases it is particularly the new moon which awakens interest and attention. The first appearance of that luminary in the western sky after sunset is often hailed with various ceremonial observances. The Indians of the Ucayali River in Peru are said to greet the appearance of the new moon with great joy. They make long speeches to her, accompanied with vehement gesticulations, imploring her protection and begging that she invigorate their bodies.[417] Certain tribes of southern California, afterwards gathered into the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, celebrated the new moon with dances, saying, “As the moon dieth and cometh to life again, so we also, having to die, will again live.”[418] The Dakota and other Plains Indians, when the moon does not shine, “say the moon is dead; and some call the three last days of it the naked days. The moon’s first appearance they term its coming to life again.” At this time they stretch forth their hands toward the moon and repeat joyful expressions.[419] The Creek and Cherokee Indians, according to an early writer, “assemble and feast at the appearance of the new moon, when they seem to be in great mirth and gladness, but, I believe, make no offerings to that planet.”[420] Similar observances have been noted in various parts of Africa. An old traveller recites how, at the appearance of every new moon, the Congo negroes, “fall on their knees, or else cry out, standing and clapping their hands, ‘So may I renew my life as thou art renewed.’” But if the sky was clouded, they did nothing, believing that the moon had lost its virtue.[421] The Mandingo, on the first appearance of the new moon, “which they look upon to be newly created,” say a short prayer.[422] The Bushmen had their special seasons of merry-making, when the dance was never neglected. “Dancing began with the new moon, as an expression of joy that the dark nights had ended, and was continued at the full moon, that they might avail themselves of the delicious coolness after the heat of the day, and the brilliancy of the moonlight in this portion of the southern hemisphere.”[423]

It has been suggested that in many cases the ceremonies at new moon have a magical aspect. On this theory the first appearance of the luminary, with its promise of growth and increase, would be greeted with rites intended to renew and strengthen, by means of sympathetic magic, the life of man.[424] Though it is true that in process of time ideas of a magico-religious character may attach themselves to lunar phenomena, and especially to new moon, there seems to be little reason for assuming them to be original and primary. Most of the foregoing examples, indeed, may be more simply interpreted as a naïve expression of man’s delight at the return of the moon to the world, after an absence at once mysterious and portentous. Still less necessary is the assumption, so commonly made, that all lunar ceremonies are acts of worship addressed to the moon as a divinity. Religious festivals appear in the first instance to be fixed at new moon or full moon because these are the two most striking periods of the lunation and mark, respectively, the beginning and middle of the lunar month.

Among many peoples in both the lower and the higher culture the time of new moon and full moon, much less commonly of each half moon, forms a season of restriction and abstinence. The lunar day is sometimes a holy day dedicated to a god, who may be identified with the moon itself. Instances of this sort are to be correlated with the general course of religious development, involving, as it does, the emergence of polytheistic cults and the schematization of the ritual. But under more primitive conditions the lunar day is a tabooed day, quite independent of any association with a deity. It seems idle to seek a particularistic explanation for the taboos observed on such an occasion. We have already noticed the sympathetic influence which the waxing and waning of the moon is supposed to exert on human activities. Furthermore, we have seen that the new moon, rising as it were from the dead, is thought to be pregnant with meaning for the life of man. Her very newness is an element of interest; her contrasts, in shape, size, and position in the heavens, to the old moon further deepen the impression of her significance; and her function of inaugurating the month not only gives to her a special place in primitive calendar systems but also invests her with the emotional importance belonging to the commencement of any new period. These ideas of lunar influence are naturally extended to the full moon, which, as will be shown, is commonly regarded as marking the division of the lunar month into two equal parts, and in some instances to the half moons, as indicating the other prominent stages in a lunation. The phases of the moon thus come to be considered critical times and to be marked not only by religious exercises but also by fasting and cessation of the customary occupations.[425]

Lunar taboos, involving abstinence and quiescence, are commonly observed in Polynesia and Indonesia.[426] Various African peoples likewise entertain pronounced beliefs regarding the unfavourable influence of the moon’s changes on human activities. The Zulu welcome the first appearance of the new moon with demonstrations of joy, but on the day following they abstain from all labour, “thinking if anything is sown on those days they can never reap the benefits thereof.”[427] The Bapiri, a tribe of the Bechuana stock, stay at home at new moon and do not go out to the fields. “They believe that if they should set about their labour at such a season, the millet would remain in the ground without sprouting, or that the ear would fail to fill, or that it would be destroyed by rust.”[428] Of another Bechuana tribe, the Makololo, in the neighbourhood of the Leeambye River, Livingstone remarks, “There is no stated day of rest in any part of this country except the day after the appearance of the new moon, and the people then refrain only from going to their gardens.”[429] An earlier writer, referring to the Bechuana, says that when the new moon appears, “all must cease from work, and keep what is called in England a holiday.”[430] To the north of the Bechuana, in the upper basin of the Zambesi, live the Barotse, by whom the new moon is made an occasion for great festivities. “It is a general holiday; men of all ranks sing and dance, while the women assemble apart and give vent to strident howls of their own.”[431] Similarly, among all the people from Nyassaland to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika the first night of the new moon is a public festival, sometimes celebrated by a dance in which the men alone participate.[432] The Baziba, who dwell to the west and southwest of Lake Victoria Nyanza, are said to be one of the few tribes in this part of Africa having “a recognized day of rest, independently of the Christians’ Sabbath. The two first days of every moon are universal holidays.”[433]

A superstitious observance of the new-moon day is found among some of the tribes and peoples occupying British East Africa. The Akamba, whose beliefs regarding the _interlunium_ have been already mentioned,[434] also consider it very unlucky to move cattle or livestock of any kind from one place or another, or even to give presents of any stock, during the first four days of the new moon.[435] Well-marked Sabbaths are kept by some sections of the Baganda, the great tribe, or rather nation, occupying Uganda. At the temple estate of the god Mukasa, the most important Baganda deity, there was a week’s rest, _bwerende_, on the appearance of each new moon; no special gatherings were held during this period, but the people did the minimum of work, even the cutting of firewood being forbidden. All preparations for the festival were made beforehand, in order that the women should not be obliged to perform any labour other than cooking.[436] In Budu, a district of Uganda, there is a curious worship of the python, conducted by members of the Heart clan. The sacred snake, which bears the title of Selwanga, is kept in a temple and receives worship at the new moon. When this appears, the people repair to the shrine of the python and make their offerings. No work may be done on the estate for seven days.[437] Again, the principal chief of the district of Singo, who was shield-bearer to the king of the Baganda, “had to observe a taboo each full moon, namely, to abstain from food from noon of the day of the full moon until the following morning, and also to live apart from his wives during that time. ‘It is full moon, the Mukwenda may not eat,’ was a saying among the people.”[438] The Banyoro, a Bantu people related to the Baganda, who inhabit the country to the northwest of Uganda, performed every full moon a ceremony which has been thus described: “In the afternoon all the drums in the place were beaten, and everybody shouted, as no one dared keep silent for fear of offending the moon. The king posted men at the cross-roads and seized every one who passed along. These unfortunate folk were brought in to him and offered as a propitiatory sacrifice for the whole country to the evil spirits. The hair of the victims was put into cow horns and their blood was poured on to it, the horns being then kept by different people as charms against sickness and trouble. After this the king appeared swathed in barkcloths, taking up his position in his council hall, his subjects coming to do obeisance to him. A dead silence prevailed, for no one was allowed to even cough in his presence.... As the full moon rose the feasting began, and the drinking and dancing continued till dawn. The king’s chief wife had to sit by her intoxicated spouse and pinch his arm or bite his finger, to prevent sleep; for a man to slumber during full moon brought disaster to the household.”[439] New moon, as well as full moon, seems to have been observed by the Banyoro, for Speke found the palace of the king of Unyoro shut up, because the new moon had been seen for the first time on the preceding evening.[440] The same explorer describes a like custom found among the Bahima, or Wahuma, of Ankole, a region lying to the southwest of Uganda. “On the first appearance of the new moon every month, the king shuts himself up, contemplating and arranging his magic horns—the horns of wild animals stuffed with charm-powder—for two or three days. These may be counted his Sundays or church festivals which he dedicates to devotion.”[441]

New-moon and full-moon festivals, accompanied by abstinence from secular activities, are thus seen to form a common feature of native life in southern and eastern Africa. The custom of keeping them as rest days is apparently confined to Bantu peoples, who arose from a mixture of Hamites with the true negroes. No sabbatarian regulations are discoverable among the Bushmen, representing the aborigines of southern Africa, or among the non-Bantu tribes of eastern Africa. It may be argued, therefore, that these African Sabbaths are of foreign parentage, being derived remotely from Hamitic and Himyaritic (Semitic) immigrants into Africa. The argument is strengthened by the fact that lunar festivals may be traced to a remote antiquity, both in Egypt and in western Asia. In any case, however, they must have been much modified with their transmission from tribe to tribe and from century to century.

None of the natives of southern and eastern Africa who observe new moon and full moon as seasons of abstinence appear to be familiar with the market week and the market day. On the other hand, in central and western Africa, where markets are so generally found and where the market day is kept as a holiday, lunar festivals accompanied by a cessation of labour are very rare.[442] Lieutenant-Colonel Ellis, who was much impressed with the resemblance of the west-African rest day to the Hebrew Sabbath, supposed that both were once lunar festivals, connected with moon-worship and celebrated on the first day of the new moon. “This holy day, before the invention of weeks, recurred monthly, but after the lunar month was divided, it recurred weekly, and was held on the first day of the week.”[443] His theory, however plausible at first sight, breaks down when we remember that the keeping of moon-days as Sabbaths does not necessarily imply worship of the moon as a deity; that full moon, as well as new moon, may be observed festively with abstinence from labour; and, finally, that the market week did not arise as a subdivision of the month, but was in origin quite independent of the lunation. The restrictions attending market days have nothing to do with superstitions relating to the moon.

Lunar taboos are not unknown in modern India. The natives of northern India regard the new moon as an unfavourable time for undertaking important business.[444] The Kanarese, whose customs and beliefs relating to the last day of the lunar month have already been noticed, do not plough their fields at new moon and full moon.[445] The Badaga of the Nilgiri Hills in southeastern India think that children born on the day of the new moon, the full moon, or any one of the three days immediately preceding the full moon, will be unfortunate throughout life.[446] The Korava regard the day after new moon as unlucky for starting out from home.[447] Similar superstitions are doubtless to be found among other Dravidian peoples.

The Aryans of ancient India observed two sacred periods in every month, new moon and full moon, with sacrifices to the gods.[448] The simpler forms of the rite were gradually extended into an elaborate ritual. Every Brahmanical householder was required to perform two half-monthly sacrifices for a period of thirty years, after he had set up a home of his own. According to some authorities these sacrifices were obligatory for the rest of his life. The ceremony usually occupied the greater part of two consecutive days. While the first day was to be chiefly occupied with preparatory rites and the taking of the vow of abstinence (_vrata_) by the sacrificer and his wife, the second day was reserved for the performance of the main ceremony.[449] Since it was permitted to compress the two days’ rites of the full-moon sacrifice into a single day, the conjecture is plausible that originally only one day was assigned to the observances of abstinence and sacrifice.[450] The ritualistic requirements for this ceremony do not expressly include the cessation of labour by the Brahmanical householder and his family. It might be argued, therefore, that the new-moon and full-moon observances were not originally dictated by a superstitious regard for the lunar phases. The fasting on the _upavasatha_ day would then be merely a rite preliminary to the sacrifice on the following day; and the association of the two ceremonies with new and full moon would mean only that these two divisions of a lunar month were selected as convenient and conspicuous periods for the performance of religious duties. But the evidence at our disposal enables us to attach a deeper significance to the ancient Aryan rite.

In the first place it is well known that the _upavasatha_ was a fast preparatory to the offering of the “moon plant,” the intoxicating _soma_, whose personification and deification are assigned to a date earlier than that of the Vedas themselves. A very competent scholar, after pointing out that in Vedic literature the moon takes a much higher rank than the sun, being regarded as the creator and ruler of the world, has argued that everywhere in the _Rig-Veda soma_ and the moon are identified, and that the terrestrial plant is merely a symbolic representation of the luminary. According to this view the moon-god as Soma forms the centre of Vedic religion.[451] The theory, thus unequivocally stated, has not won wide acceptance; according to the commoner view Soma as a god is ordinarily celebrated in the Vedic hymns only as a personification of the beverage; and his identification with the moon is to be explained as a secondary mythological formation. Certain instances of such identification are met in a few of the latest hymns of the _Rig-Veda_; and in the _Atharva-Veda_ Soma several times means the moon. Post-Vedic writings regularly refer to Soma as the moon, which, when drunk by the gods, begins to wane.[452]

In the second place the two half-monthly sacrifices were characterized by restrictions which can best be described as taboos. The Brahmanical householder was obliged to abstain from certain kinds of food, especially meat, and from sexual intercourse. He might not cut hair, beard, or nails. He should sleep, not on a bed, but on the ground. The directions for the ceremonies, as given in the _Grihya-sûtra of Gobhila_, further require the worshipper not to set out on a journey; if he is away from home even at a distant place, to return to his house; not to sell goods (though he may buy them from others); and to speak as little as possible.[453] It is obvious that the scrupulous observance of all these regulations would convert the _upavasatha_ day into a Sabbath, marked, not only by fasting, but also by the cessation of most secular activities.

In post-Vedic times the sabbatarian quality of lunar days becomes increasingly prominent. In the _Institutes of Vishnu_ the new moon is mentioned as a penitential fast day.[454] A variety of lunar penances is prescribed in the _Laws of Manu_.[455] The same lawbook sets forth that “on the (night of) new moon and the eighth (lunar day), and also on the (night of) full moon and the fourteenth (lunar day), let a Brahman who has finished his student’s course be always (as) a student, even in season,” that is, let him remain chaste.[456] According to the _Vishnu Purana_, a relatively late production of Brahmanical thought, there are “certain days on which unguents, flesh, and women are unlawful, as the eighth and fourteenth lunar days, new moon and full moon, and the entrance of the sun into a new sign. On these occasions the wise will restrain their appetites, and occupy themselves in the worship of the gods, as enjoined by holy writ, in meditation, and in prayer; and he who behaves differently will fall into a hell where ordure will be his food.”[457] It is also said that he who attends to secular affairs on the days of the _parvans_ (new moon and full moon) will be punished hereafter in a hell of blood.[458] For modern Brahmans the new-moon and full-moon days are regularly fast days.[459]

With the development of the complex ritual of Brahmanism holy and unlucky days became almost identical with days when the sacred books should not be read. The code of Manu requires a learned Brahman not to recite the Veda on the new-moon day, or on the fourteenth and eighth days of each half-month, or on the full-moon day. It is said that “the new-moon day destroys the teacher, the fourteenth day the pupil, the eighth and full-moon days destroy all remembrance of the Veda; let him therefore avoid reading on those days.”[460] This injunction, moreover, is repeated for a great variety of other critical occasions: during a heavy thunderstorm; during an eclipse; and when an earthquake occurs. A like prohibition is enforced after events causing pollution; a Brahman, for example, should not read the Veda in a village through which a corpse has been taken, or near a burning-ground.[461] Similar prohibitions are set forth at great length in the lawbook of Gautama. The Veda ought not to be studied and recited when there is a thunderstorm, an earthquake, an eclipse or a fall of meteors; on the day of the new moon (on the latter occasion reading may be interrupted for two days); on the full moon of three months of the year, and so forth.[462] In the _Vishnu Purana_ we read that “on the days called _parvans_, on periods of impurity, upon unseasonable thunder, at the occurrence of eclipses or atmospheric portents, a wise man must desist from the study of the Vedas.”[463] Some of these taboos have endured till the present time, the eighth day of each fortnight, held sacred to the goddess Durga, being a period when no study is allowable for a pious Hindu.[464]

The Vedic ceremonies at new moon and full moon appear to have influenced the Hindu festival of Bhaskara Saptami, which takes place on the twenty-second of the month Magha, the seventh day of the light fortnight (4th of February). “This day is in an especial degree sacred to the sun. Abstinence is to be practised on the day preceding; and in the morning before sunrise, or at the first appearance of dawn, bathing is to be performed until sunrise; a rigid fast is to be observed throughout the day, worship is to be offered the sun, presents are to be made to the Brahmans, and in the evening the worshipper is to hold a family feast; one of the observances of the day is abstinence from study, neither teacher nor scholar being allowed to open a book.”[465] For the proper observance of the festival it is also necessary that the sun should be worshipped in his own temple, with prayers and offerings on the sixth day, during which abstinence is to be practised, and at night the worshipper should sleep on the ground. In upper India the festival day is also called Achala Saptami, the fixed or immovable seventh, or Jayanti Saptami, the victorious seventh, and so forth. “Whatever the designation, the worship of the sun is the prominent ceremony of the seventh of the light half of Magha. The same may be said, however, of the seventh lunar day throughout the year, chiefly of one seventh in each fortnight, that of the moon’s increase; but also of the seventh day of the moon’s wane.”[466] The religious books declare that whoever worships the sun on the seventh day of the moon’s increase, with fasting and offerings of white oblations, as white flowers and the like, and whoever fasts on the seventh of the moon’s wane and offers to the sun red flowers and articles of a red colour, is purified from all iniquity and goes after death to the solar sphere. “The worship of the sun, on the seventh of the dark fortnight, seems to have gone out of use, but that on the seventh of the light fortnight is strongly recommended in various authorities, beginning with this seventh of Magha and continuing throughout the year.”[467] The selection of the seventh day of each fortnight as the time of the festival may have been due to the symbolic significance of that number, while the choice of the sun as the object of adoration doubtless reflects the commanding position which that luminary assumed in post-Vedic times. The close resemblance between these Hindu ceremonies of sun-worship and those prescribed in the Vedas for the observance of new moon and full moon suggests, however, that there has been a partial fusion of the two festivals.

The Vedic observance of new moon and full moon survived in the ritual of both Jainism and Buddhism, the two great monastic sects which arose in the sixth century B.C. out of the bosom of Brahmanism. The Jain ceremony, known as _posaha_, is declared to have been specially instituted for those who said that “we cannot, submitting to the tonsure, renounce the life of a householder and enter the monastic state, but we shall strictly observe the _posaha_ on the fourteenth and eighth days of each fortnight (on the new-moon and) full-moon days.”[468] The faithful householder “should never neglect the _posaha_ fast in both fortnights, not even for a single night.”[469] In the Jain scriptures, the _posaha_ is further defined as the observance of a fast or the eating once only on the two holy days of each fortnight, “after having given up bathing, unguents, ornaments, company of women, odours, incense, lights, etc., and assumed renunciation as an ornament.” The _posaha_ is thus distinguished by the four abstinences from food, bodily attentions, sexual intercourse, and daily work.[470] The keeping of the _posaha_ at the present day is especially connected with the holy fast of Pajjusaṇa at the close of the Jain religious year. The observance of the rite at other times by laymen appears to be dying out.[471]

The Buddhist Sabbath, or _uposatha_, like the Jain _posaha_, owed its existence remotely to the Vedic lunar rites. As celebrated anciently in India and in modern times in Nepal and Ceylon, the _uposatha_ falls on the day of the new moon, on the day of the full moon, and on the two days which are eighth from new and full moon. The _uposatha_ is marked not only by fasting but also by abstinence from secular activities: during its continuance buying and selling, work and business, hunting and fishing are forbidden, and all schools and courts of justice are closed. Whoever observes the _uposatha_ rigidly must abstain from food between sunrise and sunset. Since no cooking is allowed to taint the sanctity of the _uposatha_, the pious Buddhist prepares his evening meal in the early morning before the sun appears.[472]

The _uposatha_, as contrasted with the _upavasatha_, is a ceremony attached to all four of the lunar phases, instead of to two only; moreover, it is a rest day as well as a fast day. How may it be shown that the Buddhist institution forms a natural outgrowth of the earlier Brahmanical rite?

The origin of the custom of observing four days in the lunar month as _uposatha_ is involved in some obscurity. According to Buddhist tradition the monks of non-Buddhistic sects were accustomed to assemble at the middle and close of every half-month for the purpose of proclaiming their teachings. The Buddhists also adopted the custom of these periodical meetings on the fourteenth or fifteenth and eighth day of each half-month, a custom by them attributed to the Buddha himself.[473] There seems to be not the slightest ground for supposing that the number of Buddhist Sabbaths was originally two, but was afterwards increased to four in every month. The words of the canon are: “I prescribe that you assemble on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and eighth day of each [half] month.”[474] In the _Dhammika Sutta_ the wording is: “Then having with a believing mind kept abstinence (_uposatha_) on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and eighth days of the half-month,” etc.[475] When Buddhism arose, the custom of keeping the eighth day of each lunar fortnight, in addition to new moon and full moon, appears to have been well-established in both Brahmanism and the non-Buddhistic sects, a circumstance which led to the adoption of all four periods by Buddhists as well.[476] Two of these days (at new moon and full moon) are devoted to the special ceremony of reading, in an assembly of at least four monks, the _patimokkha_, or the disciplinary and penal code of Buddhism, according to the regulation laid down by the Buddha.[477]