Authors: Authors not listed in the provided excerpt. —
📝 Abstract
Happy end-of-the-year evening and night events provide good opportunities to explain the phases of the moon. The need for such moon phase education is once again demonstrated, through an investigation of illustrations on Santa Claus and Christmas gift wrap and in children's books, in two countries which have been important in shaping the image of Santa Claus and his predecessor Sinterklaas: The Netherlands and the USA. The moon on Halloween illustrations is also considered. The lack of knowledge concerning the physical origin of the moon phases, or lack of interest in understanding, is found to be widespread in The Netherlands but is also clearly present in the USA, and is quite possibly global. Definitely incomplete, but surely representative lists compiling both scientifically correct and scientifically incorrect gift wrap and children's books are also presented.
💡 Deep Analysis
Deep Dive into Santa and the moon.
Happy end-of-the-year evening and night events provide good opportunities to explain the phases of the moon. The need for such moon phase education is once again demonstrated, through an investigation of illustrations on Santa Claus and Christmas gift wrap and in children’s books, in two countries which have been important in shaping the image of Santa Claus and his predecessor Sinterklaas: The Netherlands and the USA. The moon on Halloween illustrations is also considered. The lack of knowledge concerning the physical origin of the moon phases, or lack of interest in understanding, is found to be widespread in The Netherlands but is also clearly present in the USA, and is quite possibly global. Definitely incomplete, but surely representative lists compiling both scientifically correct and scientifically incorrect gift wrap and children’s books are also presented.
📄 Full Content
Indicating an evening or night scene, images of the moon are often used, not only as illustrations in books (for adults and children), but also on product packings, brochures, greetings cards, gift wrap, in advertizing, commercials, as pictogram, etcetera. A full moon is often used, partly hidden behind trees or clouds, but also a partially lit moon -half or crescent -is frequently seen. The latter leaves no doubt as to identification with the moon; a full moon could possibly be mistaken for the sun. As is well known there are two possibilities to depict a partially lit moon: around its first, and around its last quarter. A crescent moon, on its way towards first quarter is called a waxing moon, and such a waxing moon can be observed in afternoon twilight and in the evening. Its right hand side is lit, for observers in the northern hemisphere (left for observers in the south). The first quarter moon sets at midnight, a waxing moon even earlier. A waning moon crescent (from third quarter to new moon: left hand side lit) rises around 3am, hence can only be observed in late night and in the morning twilight. Full moon is directly opposite the sun in the sky, hence rises at sunset. Moon illustrations are occasionally incorrect. Post cards exist showing artist impressions of tropical evenings with sun and full moon close to each other. Full moons sometimes rise around midnight in movie scenes. Illustrations which show moon crescents are also occasionally wrong: third quarter moons or waning crescents are being depicted when the actual scene is in the evening. A 2010 Unicef Christmas card as well as the opening scene in the 2010 Jacquie Lawson animated Advent e-Calendar -widely sold items -provided the culmination of several years of frowning (and smiling) about this misconception or ignorance, and triggered the research presented below. The Unicef card, of British design showed children decorating an outdoor Christmas tree. Judging from the moon phase, the scene takes place at 4am or 5am in the morning, which is not impossible but unlikely. The village scene which opened the 2010 Jacquie Lawson (http://www.jacquielawson.com) digital Advent Calendar depicts a Christmas caroling event, with performers and listeners including church choir members, on a village square. Whereas the thin waning moon indicates an early morning event, the artist undoubtedly wants to show us an early evening scene, judging from the people on the square and the lights in the houses, stores, and church. One cannot exclude the possibility that both artists had the intention to create Australia scenes with reversed moon phases, but the presence of snow in both scenes is strongly suggestive of the Northern Hemisphere December month … The same misunderstanding (or ignorance) is frequently seen on gift wrap in The Netherlands, displaying Sinterklaas, the predecessor of Santa Claus, distributing presents in the evening with a third-quarter or waning moon in the sky.
To quantify the level of ignorance concerning the phase of the evening moon related to the Sinterklaas, Santa Claus and Christmas season, a (jolly) research project was conducted, examining illustrations in children’s books, on gift wrap, and on Christmas cards, in the USA and The Netherlands. These are the two countries which shaped the image of Santa Claus and his name giver Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas, Sint Nicolaas), the benevolent figures that have been of key importance in commercializing the December month. Goal of publishing this research is obviously to focus educators’ attention on the great opportunity to explain the (origin of the) moon phases, as offered by the happy end-of-theyear events. The need for such education has been for instance well demonstrated by the video “A Private Universe” (http://www.learner.org/resources/series28.html
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The Sinterklaas and Santa Claus stories are well known and date back to the fourth century bishop Nicholas of Myra (now Demre, in south-Turkey). Legends of his generosity and kindness spread over Europe and he became the patron saint of many groups, cities, and even countries. December 5, the eve of his death, was commemorated with an annual feast in many European countries. Following the protestant reformation in the sixteenth century, some countries merged the St.Nicholas celebration with Christmas but others stuck to December 5. Its character of benevolence and the exchange of gifts obviously draws back to legends around Nicholas. Local folklore was added which resulted in different flavours for the celebrations in various countries. Dutch settlers in the New World celebrated St.Nicholas eve in the 17th century, and those celebrations evolved through contacts with immigrants of other nationalities. Concerning the transformation to Santa Claus, the importance of author Washington Irving in 1809 and of the 1823 poem “A visit from Saint Nicholas”, commonly known as “The night before Christmas"1 is well documented, as are the drawings o
