Something that we often hear about are the phases of the moon. They’re tied to many cultures, beliefs and traditions around the world, and can feel mysterious at times. This post will explain the phases and their names, and why the moon goes through phases at all!
The moon has a day side and a night side the same way that the Earth does. The Sun’s light shining on us means it is day, because the Earth and moon are both lit up by light from the Sun. The moon only looks like it is going through phases because we see it from different angles as it orbits the Earth. The light from the Sun is always hitting the moon from the same direction it’s hitting the Earth. We see the moon going from daytime (completely bright) to night time (completely dark) very slowly, because one day on the moon lasts over 29 days on Earth.
When the moon is a full bright circle in the sky, it is called a full moon, and it happens when we can see all of the day side on the moon. A new moon is the opposite, the moon looks completely dark because its light side is facing away from us.
When we look at the moon in the days in between the full moon and new moon we can see it slowly going through some more phases. When we can see most of the moon but not all of it, it is called a gibbous moon. When we can see half the light side and half the dark side, as though the moon were cut in half, it is called a quarter moon, and when we can only see a small sliver of the moon, it is called a crescent moon.
This is a cycle that repeats, going from full moon to new moon and back, the same way that we go from day to night as the Earth spins.
You may notice (from image two) that there are two gibbous moons, two quarter moons and two crescent moons. Each one has a second part to its name. If the moon is going from dark to light the phases in between are called waxing gibbous, first quarter, and waxing crescent. After that, the moon goes from light back to dark and the phases are called waning gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent. All the full names of each phase of the moon are included in image one.
The process repeats, going from night to day and back to night, just like the days on Earth.
Significant religious holidays that happened based on the phase of the moon, such as in the Islamic, Jewish and Hindu calendars. Some examples of holidays include Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Passover, Rosh Hashana and Purnima. You might have noticed that these don’t seem to happen at the same time every year, and that is because lots of people are most familiar with, which you may not have known is called the Gregorian calendar.
– Mía Iles Pérez
Image 1: National Geographic Kids. The Phases of the Moon [online]. [Accessed 2nd January 2025]. Available from: https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/science/space/the-phases-of-the-moon/
Image 2: Penguin Books Limited. A guide to the eight phases of the moon [online]. 27th April, 2020 [Accessed 2nd January 2025]. Available from: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2018/10/guide-to-the-8-phases-of-the-moon
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