friendly feast
need not be interrupted. But of all men, the shepherd would most rejoice
at this season; all his toils, all his dangers were immeasurably
lightened during the nights near the full. As in the beautiful rendering
which Tennyson has given us of one of the finest passages in the
_Iliad_--

"In heaven the stars about the moon
Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid,
And every height comes out, and jutting peak
And valley, and the immeasurable heavens
Break open to their highest, and all the stars
Shine, and the Shepherd gladdens in his heart."

A large proportion of the people of Israel, long after their settlement
in Palestine, maintained the habits of their forefathers, and led the
shepherd's life. To them, therefore, the full of the moon must have been
of special importance; yet there is no single reference in Scripture to
this phase as such; nor indeed to any change of the moon's apparent
figure. In two cases in our Revised Version we do indeed find the
expression "at the full moon," but if we compare these passages with the
Authorized Version, we find them there rendered "in the time appointed,"
or "at the day appointed." This latter appears to be the literal
meaning, though there can be no question, as is seen by a comparison
with the Syriac, that the period of the full moon is referred to. No
doubt it was because travelling was so much more safe and easy than in
the moonless nights, that the two great spring and autumn festivals of
the Jews were held at the full moon. Indeed, the latter feast, when the
Israelites "camped out" for a week "in booths," was held at the time of
the "harvest moon." The phenomenon of the "harvest moon" may be briefly
explained as follows. At the autumnal equinox, when the sun is crossing
from the north side of the equator to the south, the full moon is
crossing from the south side of the equator to the north. It is thus
higher in the sky, when it souths, on each succeeding night, and is
therefore up for a greater length of time. This counterbalances to a
considerable extent its movement eastward amongst the stars, so that,
for several nights in succession, it rises almost at sundown. These
nights of the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel was rejoicing over
the ingathered fruits, each family in its tent or arbour of green
boughs, were therefore the fullest of moonlight in the year.[81:1]

Modern civilization has almost shut us off