The MOON

(Roud, S (2003) Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. London: Penguin)

Moon: bowing to

One of the most widespread practices on seeing the new moon was to bow or curtsey to it:

When living, a few years ago, in Ayrshire, our housekeep use to make obeisance several times to the new moon when she observed it, looking very solemn the while. And when I asked her why she did so, she replied that by doing she would be sure to get a present before the next moon appeared. She wished me (then a very young girl) to do so too, and when I told her it was all nonsense, she ‘fired up’ and said her mother had done so, and she would continue to do so. I rather think this is no uncommon practice, for our previous servant did the same thing, and neither of them was older than about forty or fifty.
                                                Ayrshire Scotsman (27 Dec. 1889)

The form of the obeisance varies considerably – bowing or curtseying are by far the most common, but nodding, raising the hat, and kissing the hand are also reported. The number of stipulated times can also be any odd number from one to nine. This bowing motif is very often combined with other elements of ‘new moon’ belief, such as making a wish or reciting a rhyme to divine future partners (see below), but the most common direct result of paying one’s respect is that you will get a present, or find something nice, before the next new moon:

It was a prevalent belief that if a person catching the first glimpse of new moon were to instantly stand still, kiss their hand three times to the moon, and bow to it, that they would find something of value before that moon was out.
                                                Western Scotland Napier (1879)

Moon: moonlight dangerous

The supposed connection between the moon and insanity, encapsulated in the word ‘lunacy’, has a very long history, and is now a cliché of popular culture. Nevertheless, many people, even in relatively recent times, took the idea quite seriously:

Two instances have been recorded between 1961 and 1963 of the effect of the full moon on persons suffering from mental illness. In both cases the symptoms of the patient – acute depression in one, restlessness and agitation in the other – were said by other members of the family to become more marked at the time of the full moon.
                                                Cambridgeshire Porter (1969)

Moonlight also featured in a range of other beliefs – always with a negative and dangerous reputation. Humans sleeping in moonlight were said to be, at best, subject to bad luck and bad dreams, and at worst prone to stammering, blindness, paralysis, and idiocy. To avoid this fate, some children were taught a protective rhyme:

Very few mothers will suffer the full moon to shine in at the bedroom windows when their children have retired to rest; for the popular opinion is, that her rays will cause the sleepers to lose their senses. Should children observe the moon looking into their rooms, they are taught to endeavour to avert her influence by repeating the words:

I see the moon
The moon sees me
God bless the priest
That christened me.
                                                Lancashire Harland & Wilkinson (1873)

Moon: pointing at

A relatively widely reported nineteenth-century superstition prohibited any pointing at the moon, on the basic grounds of being disrespectful:

A lady, upwards of seventy years of age, informs me that when a child on a visit to her uncle at Ashburton, she was severely scolded by one of the servants, for pointing her finger at the moon. The act was considered very wicked, being an insult; and no one knew what evil instances it might call down.
                                                Devon Devonshire Assoc. (1879)

Moon: seen through glass

One of the two major superstitions regarding how or where the new moon is first seen dictates that it is very bad luck to see it through glass:

Many Cambridgeshire people still consider it unlucky to see a  new moon for the first time through glass, although few, if any, now go to the length of taking the precautions to avoid doping so which their grandparents, in many instances, took. An elderly Cambridge man recalled in 1958 that when he used to stay with his grandmother in Ely when he was a boy, he remembers being told by her to stand by an open kitchen window to warn her of an appearance of a new moon so that she could join him and see it from the doorstep and not through a window.
                                                Cambridgeshire Porter (1969)

The penalty for ignoring this interdiction is usually cited as generally ‘very bad luck’, but some informants specified that the results would be that you would ‘break glass’ during that moon. Less common, but still reported in significant numbers, was the idea that it was also unlucky to see the moon ‘through trees’.

If the moon you see
Neither through glass or tree
It shall be a lucky moon to thee.
                                                Jersey Folk-Lore (1914)

It is not entirely clear why viewing through glass was counted as so significant, although similar prohibitions were reported, much less commonly, in other contexts. It was believed, for example, that it was bad luck to see a funeral through a window, and that what is seen through glass is not permissible as evidence in court. The only clue which emerges from the mass of references to the new-moon belief is an impression, and it is no more than that, that it is somehow disrespectful to the moon not to see it face to face.

All information sourced from:
Roud, S (2003) Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. London: Penguin