I forgot to tell you that the Jewish festival of Tu Bishvat, the New Year of the Trees, always coincides with the full moon. January’s full moon in Mallorca could already be admired yesterday, and what a lovely moon we had. Apparently, this January full moon is bigger and brighter than average due to the greater proximity of the moon’s perigee, i. e. the elliptical orbit of the moon brings our lunar satellite nearer to earth than at other times. And as a bonus, Mars could be seen just to the left of the moon last night. The reddish, star-like object, that’s Mars.

This full moon concurs with this year’s almond blossom. The blossoming is out for real now, as you can see from my photo (above), taken a couple of days ago near Porreres. Another wonderful sight. As I have explained before, the moon has always played an important role in Mallorca’s rural society. Here, the lunar almanac dictates the schedule of agricultural events to a much larger extent than the solar calendar, and has done so ever since the Moorish period if not even before. What clever people they were then, and how clever the farmers still are, today.

Happy New Year of the Trees, everybody.

The photo was taken near Porreres, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: January 28th, 2010. The time was 12:46:14.