Re: Lunar Cycle was Subterranea

> --- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Gregory Gadow <techbear@S...> wrote:
>
>>Not all that arbitrary. It makes perfect sense to divide a lunar
>>cycle in to a bright period and a dark period; both of those are
>>about 14 days long. If you subdivide that further in to "bright
>>growing brighter", "bright growing darker", "dark growing darker"
>>and "dark growing brighter" phase, you end up with a month
> consisting >of four seven day weeks.
>
> This seems to make the lunar phases more regular than they really
> are. In the time between the new moon today & the new moon On Jul
> 6, i.e., 12 phases, the length between each of the phases is, in
> days, 8, 8, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 6, 9, 7, 6, and 8.  I assume, e.g., that,
> by "light growing darker" you mean last quarter to new moon.  In that
> particular instance there are 7, 6, 8 days in the time frame
> mentioned.  Sometimes the phase can be as long as nine days or as
> short as five days.  The time from NM 4/8 to NM 5/8 is 30 days; from
> NM 5/8 to NM 6/6 27 days; from NM 6/6 to NM 7/6 30 days.  The lunar
> phases cannot be used to form regular seven-day weeks.
True, which is why the seven day week is not universal through human
cultures. However, a period of time ranging from 5 to 10 days is found
pretty much everywhere, with 6 to 8 days being most common. The link
between this time period and the quarter phases of the moon seems pretty
strong, just as the link between our 30 day months is strongly linked to a
lunar cycle that typically lasts only 28 or 29 days.