According to some people's moon phases apps, Friday was the moon day.
So there was a bit of confusion in the twittershala whether to follow Friday or Saturday as the Moon day. This was a twitter-conversation that took place on Friday.
My moon phases app said Saturday was the moon day, and since the ashtanga.com site said so too, that was good enough for me that Saturday should be observed as the moon day. I follow rules, remember?
BUT... Even with the double-confirmation, I STILL PRACTICED ON SATURDAY!
Haha. I think a bunch of us #rogueashtangis did.
I remember in Sydney, if the moon day fell on a Saturday, my teacher would still take either the day before or after as the moon day. She called it a "teacher's holiday". HAHAHA.
Everyone needs a break every other week, right?
So, interestingly... According to the ashtanga.com moon day dates (and my moon phases app) - the next few moon days will be on Saturday again.
I'm curious to see - How are you or your shala observing the Saturday moon days?
RAIN-SUIT UPDATE: I went to another cheap-charlie joint to look for one, and again they only had "L/XL" sizes available. I think the Universe is really telling me an ugly poncho is NOT the way forward. I might just *have* to buy that Nike rain-jacket I just spotted. (No, this does not de-rail my plan to finally visit the Mon-Wed-Fri shala tomorrow morning. I hope.)
MYSORE UPDATE: KPJAYI just emailed me again saying they've just put up an online registration form and may I please re-submit my application AGAIN for 2011. So I just did. FINALLY! They've hit the 21st century! ...and between the number of applications I've had to deal with between them and the Embassy, I'm really learning a lesson in patience here. :p
Oh and - have you seen KPJAYI's pretty new website? :) (They've added a moon app on their site, and on their shala schedule, it looks like they're also observing the Fridays as their moon days.) Hmm...
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The Phases app showed that the full moon was between 2 and 3 in the morning GMT on Saturday, therefore the moon day was Friday in the Americas and Saturday everywhere else. All depends what time zone you are in at the exact moment of the full moon.
ReplyDeleteI did a little backbending practice yesterday too :)
My shala practiced Friday with Saturday the Moon Day, In fact, there is a little sign outside that says No Moon Days for awhile, not until Nov 21. None of us know how they are calculating. We just come and do.
ReplyDeleteI wrote you a megalong comment earlier then lost it when I impatiently clicked on the kpjayi link whilst writing it (there's a lesson to be learned there...) so I'll curb this version of it!!
ReplyDeleteClayton explained this week about the moondays, that basically the official day to take rest is the one closest to the full/new moon itself. What I didn't understand was that a full moon occurs when the sun, moon and earth are all in direct line with one another and there's a precise time that happens (and the same for new moon, where the sun & moon are in the opposite positions but still directly in line). If the full moon is at it's apex at 8.30am like it was on saturday in the timezone I was in, it is obvious that saturday's the moonday, but you take the day where the time of your practice is closest, so if the full moon's at 11.30 at night on a monday, you take tuesday off not monday because that;s the closest time to your practice - but in theory if you do evening practice you would take the monday off.
whoops I don't think I shortened this answer at all....haha!! Anyway that's moondays for dummies (err - me) you probably knew all this stuff already! Oh and we did a little practice on the moonday too but you get special dispensation on retreats I think ;)
Interesting point Susan! I've got the same app as you, and I just thought it refers to the Full Moon where you're at in the world. Maybe I'm being daft or I have no clue about astronomy, but I kinda always thought it was like the sunrise... Y'know... it happens at "different times" depending where you are in the world? Kind of like timezones - If I see the sunrise first, I'll get the Full Moon first too?
ReplyDeleteIn reading Mel's comment, I see the Full Moon only happens ONCE when sun/ earth/ moon are aligned. Ohhhhhhh.... DUH. Thanks for the Moondays for dummies explanation, Mel!
Loo - I used to do that too! And sometimes my Sydney shala moondays would differ from what was on ashtanga.com's moonday listing. But then I figured "it must be the timezone" thing. Which I guess... going by Mel's explanation... it kinda of is and it isn't! HAHA!
i think i remember reading on Eddie Stern's webpage a while ago that moon day occurs when the moon is full before 11pm. after 11pm it is considered as the next day. and as Susan pointed out, the full moon will happen at different times around the globe.
ReplyDeletethat said, at the shala in mysore they will frequently move the moon day to accommodate their schedules, as you will soon see :)
Good point Tova... I guess a "Cut off point" is necessary for when you'd consider which day the moon day belongs to, right? :)
ReplyDeleteWhen Sharath gave his 2 week workshop in Sydney, there were no moon days nor Saturday breaks either. ;)
Dear Jaime
ReplyDeleteI have to go study my Chinese, but here are my two bits. The confusion was great at my shala. Teacher was away. The assistant thought he should observe the Chinese version of the lunar calendar, which the teacher says can be observed the day before the moon day or the day after. The assistant observed it Friday. But officially the day was Saturday. The shala opener, who lives on the premises, was confused enough to state that there would not be class on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday. However, there was class on Sunday, Teacher texted. I succumed to the lazies anyway. hahaha. In California some traditional studios used to do what Tova described, deciding when to observe it. Here we follow the Mysore, India calendar.
hugs
Arturo
Eh, JC moves it around as he sees fit. I think most of them do.
ReplyDelete