For as long as humans have gazed upward, the moon has been our constant nocturnal companion. It has shifted, glowed, and reshaped itself in a mesmerizing dance of light and shadow. Its rhythmic cycle of phases has not only guided calendars and harvests, but also stirred imagination, poetry, and myth across countless cultures.
The phases of our lunar neighbor have been observed for thousands of years, and each phase has a name and story to tell. But beyond that, every month is also attributed to its own full moon, and older civilizations gave them names of their own.
What did our ancestors call these phases? And why were these names given in the first place? Click on to find out.