The Lunacy of the Full Moon! Does it make us crazy?

We’ve all heard the stories and the sayings; ‘Oh dear there’s a full moon tonight, watch out!’ ‘Crazy things happen during a full moon’ etc etc… It’s been going on for years.

The word ‘lunatic’ meaning crazy person or thereabouts comes from the Roman Moon Goddess ‘Luna’ and ‘Lunacy’ means strange or eccentric behaviour brought on, by or not by, the moon being full and comes from ‘lunaticus’ which means ‘of the moon’, all of these were popular in the 1800’s but you still here them today.

Seeing as we find ourselves visiting or living on the island most associated with the Full Moon because of the party which happens at this time of the month it seems obvious that we should touch on the subject of full moon craziness.

Now apparently, there are statistics which show higher crime rates, more births of children and all manner of strange behaviour around the world during a full moon but what is it that makes people more highly strung at this time? We don’t want to disappoint you but there actually is not any valid scientific study that supports this, instead it is said that it’s ‘coincidence’.

One of the pulling factors (excuse the pun) is that of the moon’s gravitational force, it was thought that because the moon controls the tides that it must have some effect on us, as us humans are made up of on average 60% water. That’s quite a big percentage so the moon must pull our waters around also which may have something to do with this ‘lunacy’! But no, alas, from what we can gather the moon only affects open water such as oceans and lakes and not that of our enclosed bodies. ‘But it must have some effect surely’ we hear you say! We all feel weird around a full moon! No...unfortunately this is not the cause.

And so let's think about the light of the full moon, it was thought that if a full moon shone on you during sleep then it would make you a ‘lunatic’, we read somewhere that this is why old thatched roofs came down over the window, to stop the bright moon shining in!!

There’s no doubt that because we are close to the equator here on Phangan we get to experience a beautiful big full moon all year round and so if you look to the skies during this time you will notice a significant change in the brightness from when the moon is not full, it’s definitely not pitch black when the moon is full, it is awesomely light in fact. So the moon may keep you awake a little if it’s full so maybe it’s down to sleep deprivation that we all (or some) go a little doolally?

It seems so obvious here on our little island that the full moon makes people more hyperactive, thousands of tourists arrive and descend upon the roads, fearless in their actions with inhibitions dropped to an all time low. People don’t behave like this normally do they?! No, they don’t but it’s probably all the booze in their systems and not the power of the moon that brings on this behaviour unfortunately.

We’d like to keep the romance and magic alive about this full moon lunacy theory though because it’s nice to have something to believe in and really, most importantly, we do all feel something happening at this time so we need a theory to lend it to!

Maybe it’s just Koh Phangan’s magical air that makes the age old theory feel more real and effective here to us, everyone who comes to this island ends up believing in some kind of magic and what better magic than to believe in than the Full Moon itself (not the party)...