The moon has always greatly influenced human behaviour and way of thinking. The Greek historian and geographer Strabo (63-24 BC), in his work Geography (3,4,16), reports that the indigenous peoples of northern Hispania (modern Portugal and Spain) "offered sacrifice to a nameless god at the seasons of the full moon, by night, in front of the doors of their houses, and whole households dance in chorus and keep it up all night". This cult of the moon was possibly related to the finding of the fertility cycles of women and plants, allowing the establishment of plant germination calendars and the evocation of omens of prosperity and calamities. This cult continued for centuries and has survived to this day.

After the implementation of Christianity in the Iberian Peninsula, the survival of Moon worship led to its explicit prohibition by the II Council of Braga, held in 572 AD and presided over by São Martinho de Dume. Even today, many people believe in the moon's influence on human, animal and plant behaviour.

The veiled moon is seen as a threat of unhappiness. On the contrary, the full moon predicts good business and success. In rural areas, the pig was not killed in the last quarter to avoid spoiling the preserved meat. Sowing must be done according to the lunar calendar in order to get reasonable germination rates.

It was the ballast of these fragments of History and Ethnography that I felt when, a few days ago, I saw the moon rise at the top of the Serra de Montemuro, near the Chapel of São Pedro do Campo, a place that is now deserted and inhospitable but that was already occupied in the Neolithic period, a granite landscape full of large blocks among which, at nightfall, I saw this almost full moon rise.