Listening to the moon

In April 2026, as the Artemis II mission drew the world’s gaze back to the night sky, it served as a quiet reminder of the enduring, almost intimate bond we share with the moon. Waxing and waning above us, a constant and reassuring presence, it has shaped our collective imagination since the earliest days of human history. Though it no longer governs our clocks as it once did, its influence remains unmistakable. It drives the tides, continues to inspire artists, and runs through culture, ritual and belief. More than anything, it embodies a sense of rhythm of reflection, renewal, and the perpetual cycle of beginnings.

When astronomy meets gastronomy

For Relais & Châteaux, that sense of renewal is felt most keenly at properties that grow their own produce. Astronomy meets gastronomy, particularly at properties that practice biodynamic farming–a holistic approach that aligns agriculture with the moon and cosmic cycles. It’s increasingly popular as farmers globally turn away from industrial farming and embrace more old-fashioned, naturally regenerative agricultural practices.

This is a profound transition that’s adopted by many chefs, including Mauro Colagreco, vice president, Chefs at Relais & Châteaux. He has fully aligned the kitchen at three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Mirazur, in the South of France, to the biodynamic lunar calendar. Observing the sky to cultivate the land is, he says, a millennia-old practice, but with industrial development, we have distanced ourselves from this knowledge. “Biodynamics reconnects us with this approach,” he says.

It means ingredients grown in the property’s gardens, overlooking the Mediterranean, are harvested at precise moments during lunar cycles when, he says, energy is concentrated in specific parts of the plant: roots, leaves, flowers and fruits. “It translates into a more pronounced vitality,” he says. “Flavors are more precise, more intense, more vibrant. It is the moment of their most authentic expression.”

The power of lunar cycles

At Quercus in Georgia, USA, which hosts guests in four forest cabins on its 4,000-acre estate, the team looks not only to the moon’s phase (the portion of the moon visible from earth) but also to its node (its position in the sky). Just as at Restaurant Mirazur–though with a slightly different rationale–this helps determine when produce in its gardens will be at their flavorful best, as well as when plants should be pruned back.

In Beijing, China, lunar cycles (this time based on the 24 solar terms-spread across the four seasons of the traditional Chinese calendar) influence not just the choice of ingredients served at two-Michelin-starred King’s Joy restaurant, but cooking techniques. “During the waxing phase of the moon, we tend to highlight tender shoots and young leaves that embody upward growth,” says Chef-Patron Gary Yin. “During the waning phase, we focus more on root vegetables and ingredients with deeper, more ‘inward’ flavors.”

For Relais & Châteaux destinations with vineyards, the moon can play a crucial role in winemaking. At Restaurant Pearl Morissette in Ontario, Canada, moon phases inform when to apply certain products to the vines, while impending new and full moons helps the team anticipate cold snaps. The moon is not the only factor considered, however, moon cycles play a role in finalizing choices about the best approach to viticulture.

Moon phase: pure watchmaking finesse

For our partner Blancpain, the ability to accurately display the moon’s phases in its watches symbolizes its astonishing mechanical finesse. It unveiled its first moon phase timepiece in 1983, just as quartz movements represented an existential threat to the traditions of watchmaking. By so defiantly rejecting this new technology and so proudly celebrating the generational skills of its watchmakers, its moon phase complication represented a new era for the Swiss watch industry–just as you’d expect when the moon’s involved.

Four decades later, Blancpain incorporates moon phase complications across more watches than any other watchmaker. Its portfolio includes the sublime Villeret Calendrier Chinois Traditionnel, the world’s first watch to feature a traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. Powered by the Blancpain 3638 movement, it’s one of the most complex calendar mechanisms ever conceived, capable of displaying moon phases across a 60-year cycle, plus the five elements, the twelve animals of the zodiac (2026 being the Year of the Horse), and even the forces of Yin and Yang.

An underwater world powered by moonlight

Beyond watchmaking, Blancpain’s connections to oceanic conservation hint at the moon’s powerful influence on all life on earth. “Lunar cycles govern the fundamental behaviors of most living beings," says Laurent Ballesta, who founded the Gombessa Expeditions with the watchmaker as the founding partner.

Whether it’s the intensity of moonlight or the moon’s gravitational pull, its phases drive reproduction, spawning, predation and feeding patterns in some species. Coral reef fish and convict surgeonfish larvae wait for new moons to reproduce; groupers, convict surgeonfish and horseshoe crabs wait for the full moon; for hammerhead sharks, it’s also the ideal time to hunt for leopard rays.

In a world obsessed with instant gratification, there’s a beauty in the slower rhythms of the cosmos and recognizing how the moon connects planet earth to a more divine plane–whether on your plate, in your glass, or on your wrist.

Winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021, the photograph entitled Creation captures, beneath the full moon over Fakarava in French Polynesia, a phenomenon as rare as it is spectacular: the synchronized spawning of 18,000 camouflage groupers gathered in the atoll’s southern pass.