Following up on the interesting conversations heard this week relating to effects of the moon I have spent a few days talking to locals about it. Results as follows:- the French coined the word lunatic [lunatique] from the Latin for moon, 'luna'
- funeral professionals fight to avoid shifts around the full moon citing that there are more deaths around the time of the full moon than at any other
- Basque people still feed their babies medicine to help ward off the worms that are said to affect infant tummies during full moons
- on days around the full moon there are said to be more calls to the police, animal bites, insect stings and babies delivered
- almost half of all suicides allegedly occur during the full moon
- crime is reported to peak at the full moon and the following two days
- Europeans have long believed in 'Lycanthropy', humans turning into animals at the full moon; during the C16 thousands of French people supposedly lived as wolves in the mountains and attacked and ate unwary travellers
- humans and animals are meant to sleep less and be more 'frisky' during the full moon, hence the concept of howling at the moon
Basque of the day:- moon :: ilargi
