Monday – the Moon’s Day

Monday is the first day of the week according to the international standard ISO 8601, but in the US, Canada, and Japan it’s counted as the second day of the week.

Monday is named after the moon.

Monday comes after Sunday and before Tuesday in our modern day Gregorian Calendar.

Naming Monday
The English word Monday was derived from Old English which literally means “moon’s day”.

Middle English – Monday or mone(n)day
Latin – dies lunae – “Day of the moon”
Old Norse – mánadagr, mandag, mánudagur
Old English – mōnandæg or mōndæg
Ancient Greek – hemera selenes – “day of the moon”

First or second day?
Monday is considered the first day of the week according to the international standard ISO 8601. In many cultures and languages, Monday is given a name that means either “second day” marking Sunday to be the first day of the week or a name that means the day after Sunday.

Slavic languages number Monday as the first day, not the second day. Many European countries have calendars that mostly show Monday as the first day of the week.

Depressing “Blue Monday”
Monday used to be called “Blue Monday” because it was a day associated with washing clothes that involved blue dye. However, it now refers to the day when employees have to return to work after the weekend.

Least favorite day
In many cultures, Monday is considered the worst day of the week because it is the first day of the work week. A number of songs often feature Monday as a day of depression, anxiety, or melancholy such as “Monday, Monday” by the Mamas & the Papas in 1966 or “Rainy Days and Mondays” by the Carpenters in 1971, not to mention “I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats in 1979.

However, Mondays are considered good days for fasting in Judaism and Islam. In the Eastern Orthodox Church Mondays are days in which Angels are commemorated.
 

Source

timeanddate.com

Monday

Monday is the sacred day of the moon, personified as the Goddess Selene, Luna and Mani. The moon is ruler of flow, affecting the changeable and impressionable aspects of people. If a full moon falls on a Monday, then the powers of the moon are at their most potents.

Deity: Mani

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Planet: Moon

Tree: Willow

Herb: Chickweed

Stone: Agate

Animal: Crab

Element: Water

Color: Green

Number: 5

Rune Lagu (L)

Celtic Tree Month of Fearn (Alder) – March 18 to April 14th. Alder signifies protection in times of conflict, enability in time of change.

Runic Half Month of Ehwaz (horse) – March 30 to April 15th

Goddess of the Month for March 20 to April 17th is Columbina
 

Source

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

The Sky This Week: April 4 – 10

A good time for Zodical light, Mars grows brighter, and the Beehive Cluster buzzes into a prime position.

Monday, April 4
Orion the Hunter stands out in the southwest as darkness falls this week. The conspicuous constellation appears slightly askew compared with its appearance in winter’s evening sky. Now, the three-star belt is aligned parallel to the horizon while blue-white Rigel hangs directly below the belt and ruddy Betelgeuse stands directly above.

Tuesday, April 5
Saturn rises shortly after midnight local daylight time this week and climbs highest in the south just as morning twilight starts to paint the sky. The ringed planet shines at magnitude 0.3 among the much fainter background stars of southern Ophiuchus. A telescope reveals Saturn’s 17″-diameter disk surrounded by a spectacular ring system that spans 40″ and tilts 26° to our line of sight.

Wednesday, April 6
Although Jupiter reached opposition and peak visibility about a month ago (on March 8), it remains a stunning sight from dusk until the start of morning twilight. The giant planet shines at magnitude –2.4 among the background stars of Leo the Lion. Turn a telescope on Jupiter and you will see a 43″-diameter disk with lots of atmospheric detail. The world’s four major moons put on a great show tonight as well. Innermost Io begins to transit Jupiter at 9:52 p.m. EDT, and its shadow follows 40 minutes later. The planet then occults Europa at 10:48 p.m. Next in line is Ganymede, the solar system’s largest moon, which starts to transit the gas giant at 1:01 a.m. At 2:54 a.m., Europa emerges from Jupiter’s shadow about one planet radius east of the limb. The final events occur as Jupiter sinks toward the western horizon. Ganymede’s large shadow first touches the planet’s cloud tops at 3:45 a.m.; then, a half-hour later, the giant moon’s transit ends.

Thursday, April 7
New Moon occurs at 7:24 a.m. EDT. At its New phase, the Moon crosses the sky with the Sun and so remains hidden by our star. Because the Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, only six hours later (at 1:36 p.m. EDT), residents in coastal areas can expect higher than normal tides for the next few days. At perigee, the center of the Moon lies 221,931 miles (357,163 kilometers) from Earth’s center.

Saturday, April 9
One of the spring sky’s finest deep-sky objects, the Beehive star cluster (M44) in the constellation Cancer the Crab, lies high in the south after darkness falls. With naked eyes under a dark sky, you should be able to spot this star group as a faint cloud even though a crescent Moon also occupies the evening sky. But the Beehive explodes into dozens of stars through binoculars or a small telescope.
Uranus is in conjunction with the Sun at 5 p.m. EDT. From our earthly perspective, this means the distant planet lies behind the Sun and so is out of sight. Uranus will return to view in the morning sky in May.

Sunday, April 10
The waxing crescent Moon appears just above the 1st-magnitude star Aldebaran in this evening’s sky. Binoculars provide the best view of this close conjunction because they also clearly reveal the neighboring Hyades, a V-shaped star cluster that Aldebaran appears to anchor. For residents of the United States, the Moon appears to pass in front of Aldebaran during the afternoon hours, at approximately 6 p.m. EDT (3 p.m. PDT).

 

Source

Astronomy Magazine

Sun & Moon Data for Monday, April 4th

 

Sun
Sun Direction: ↑ 102.50° ESE
Sun Altitude: 25.60°
Sun Distance: 92.988 million mi
Next Solstice: Jun 20, 2016 5:34 PM (Summer)
Sunrise Today: 6:35 AM↑ 82° East
Sunset Today: 7:20 PM↑ 278° West
Length of Day: 12 hours, 45 minutes

 

Moon
Moon Direction: ↑ 148.58° SSE
Moon Altitude: 38.56°
Moon Distance: 227543 mi
Next New Moon: Apr 7, 20166:23 AM
Next Full Moon: Apr 22, 201612:23 AM
Next Moonset: Today4:20 PM
Current Moon Phase: Waning Crescent
Illumination: 11.9%

 

Source

timeanddate.com