Hogwarts en el aula de primaria: Astronomy 501: Introdcution to Astronomy. Moon Calendar

Bienvenidos a nuestro 5º año en la Torre de Astronomía. Este año vamos a seguir viendo el calendario lunar y para ello vamos a ver primero su importancia y luego vamos a elaborar nuestro propio calendario lunar

In this ligh I will begin with a bit of theory. Last year we talked about the Moon Calendar and it´s origins. This year we will begin by learning about Why does a Lunar Calendar Still Matter?

Astronomy 501. An Introduction

The origin of the moon calendar

People have looked up into the sky for thousands of years to find purpose and a sense of time and order. In doing so pre-historic societies chose the path of the moon as their first cosmic guide.

Firstly it is the most visible object in the sky and in the absence of electricity was the only viable light at night (bar fire). The path of the moon is also inextricably connected to the tides and the human fertility cycle. In fact, the moon had always been connected to fertility, rainfall, birth and death.

The word ‘calendar’ derives from the Latin word ‘calendarium’, which means register and structure. So having a calendar was a big leap forward. Now it was possible to structure festivals, daily routines and agricultural events – and they could be planned in advance. This was particularly important when humans started to settle down and then getting together for celebrations/market day and other social events really took off. It was of course the calendar, the common structure for measuring everybody’s time, that made these events possible. Apart from timing celebrations it also enabled dates for planting, harvesting and collecting taxes.

Counting the nights from no moon (New Moon) to Full Moon and back again are roughly 28 days. The Waxing (growing) and the Waning (descending) phase were further subdivided into 4 quarters

Nowadays most of the world has adopted the Gregorian calendar model, based on the Ancient Egyptian calendar which only follows the path of the sun and treats every day the same, no changes of day qualities.

texto e imagen cedidos por livingwiththemoon.com

So today we will make our own Lunar Calendar. I am going toshow you the way to do it... Follow my istructions please:

- First you need scissor, glue, a blck marker and a white ball of polispan

- Cut the figures in the piece of paper that the teacher gave you

- Make the envelop and put the other piece of paper inside. Be careful that the two holes are in the same space

- Now paint the Moon (just half) with the black marker

- Paste the Moon in the way that it rotates in the same way that the pieceof paper inside the envelop

- Now how it works???