Cultural implications Morning
prayer is a common practice in several religions. The morning period includes specific phases of the
Liturgy of the Hours of Christianity. Some languages that use the time of day in
greeting have a special greeting for morning, such as the English
good morning. The appropriate time to use such greetings, such as whether it may be used between midnight and
dawn, depends on the culture's or speaker's concept of morning. The use of
good morning is ambiguous, usually depending on when the person woke up. Many people greet someone with the shortened "morning" rather than "good morning". It is used as a greeting, never a farewell, unlike
good night which is used as the latter. To show respect, one can add the addressee's last name after the salutation: "Good morning, Mr. Smith." For some, the word
morning may refer to the period immediately following waking up, irrespective of the current time of day. This modern sense of morning is due largely to the worldwide spread of electricity, and the independence from natural light sources.
Astronomy at dawn, with Mercury at left When a star first appears in the east just prior to sunrise, it is referred to as a
heliacal rising. Despite the less favorable lighting conditions for
optical astronomy, dawn and morning can be useful for observing objects
orbiting close to the Sun. Morning (and evening) serves as the optimum time period for viewing the
inferior planets Venus and
Mercury. The morning (and evening) twilight is used to search for
near-Earth asteroids that orbit inside the orbit of the Earth.
Genetics For people, the morning period may be a period of enhanced or reduced energy and productivity. The ability of a person to
wake up effectively in the morning may be influenced by a
gene called "
Period 3". This gene comes in two forms, a "long" and a "short" variant. It seems to affect the person's preference for mornings or evenings. People who carry the long variant were over-represented as morning people, while the ones carrying the short variant were evening preference people. == See also ==