The moon was created for the counting of the days.

Hebrew Midrash Text

EVENTS IN THE SECOND WEEK
OF MIDDLE SPRING: TURKEY GOBBLING WEEK
           The Singing Toad Moon, full on April 9, wanes throughout the coming week, entering its final quarter on April 17. Rising after dusk and setting after dawn, the gibbous, third-quarter moon will be overhead in the middle of the night.
     The Lyrid Meteors are active after midnight between Cygnus and Hercules this week. These shooting stars often appear at the rate of 15 to 25 per hour.
    On April 10, the 100th day of the year, the sun reaches a declination of 7 degrees 53 minutes, about 65 percent of its way to summer solstice. After April 10, the chances for highs below 50 degrees in the Lower Midwest fall sharply to an average of just 15 percent. Most afternoons are now in the 50s and 60s, but they warm to the 70s or 80s fifteen percent of the time.
     By the 100th day, the landscape has entered its most benign period, even in the coldest years. When the fields are dry enough, farmers plant the first corn. Pastures turn purple with wild deadnettle.  Winter wheat, almost tall enough to ripple in the wind, is the brightest of the year. Robins sing at 6:00 a.m., cardinals at 6:25. Grackles and doves call as you take your morning walks.
    In the gardens, daffodils, scilla, grape hyacinths, pachysandra and early tulips reach full bloom. Peonies are unraveling, at least a foot tall, tall as the asparagus and Japanese knotweed. Peas and radishes sprout as the first strawberry flowers. Mulberry, locust, tree of heaven and ginkgo send out their first leaves. Pear trees and peach trees, red quince shrubs, white birch, box elders and serviceberries blossom. Crab apples open. Willow catkins, star magnolia petals and maple flowers fall.
     Honeybees drink at the village ponds, carpenter bees seek soft eaves for nesting, ants explore your garage and windowsills, bumblebees visit the great patches of April dandelions, cabbage moths and question mark and blue butterflies are out, and the first monarch of the year could arrive in town.
    As lawn mowing season begins, wild turkeys are gobbling. Although some snow trillium and twinleaf are done flowering, it’s budding time for meadow rue, large-flowered trillium, trout lily, Jacob’s ladder, ragwort and sedum. Lily of the valley and hosta spears push up through the mulch. Bellwort leaves unravel. Virginia bluebell, hepatica, periwinkle, toad trillium, cowslip, rue anemone, chickweed, toothwort, fleabane, spring beauty, small-flowered bittercress, shepherd’s purse, henbit, violet, small-flowered buttercup, thyme-leafed speedwell are now all in bloom.