Lunar awareness: If you follow the solar Gregorian calendar it may have slipped your attention that it is the new moon and those of us following lunar based calendars that means a new month, and for some a new year.

This week's new moon ushers in:

- the month of Adar for Jews - the month of silliness, joy and miracles centred around the holiday of Purim in the middle of the month.

- the month of Ramadan for Muslims - the month of fasting by day and celebrating with family by night culminating in the festival of Eid el Fitr at the end of the month.

- the east Asian/Chinese lunar new year spring festival

For all of us that follow a lunar based calendar the cycle of the moon remains closely tied to the rhythm of our daily lives, looking at the night sky still helps us to tell time and work out our schedules.

Maybe it's a small thing but to me there is always a thrill at being able to look up at the night sky and know when the next festival or fast is coming by the shape of the moon or when one the kids says "Look Imma, the moon is getting small again, it's almost Rosh Hodesh", or "Look at the moon, it's going to be my birthday soon".

I feel a frisson of connectedness with my heritage, with my ancestors, all the generations who looked up at that moon and did the same thing, all those who came before me and looked to the night sky to know whether it was time yet to celebrate the new month. That direct link to the eternal, the ever so distant moon by which generations of my people, and so many other ancient peoples, tell time.

A moment of breaking through the ever present electronic hum of modern hi-tech living to remember something more primal, one of the first mitzvot in the Torah, the blessing and honour of keeping alive this millennia old tradition.

Side point - both the Chinese and Jewish calendars are lunisolar, meaning that they are calculated according to both the moon and the sun.