The Harvest Moon – the orange full moon that reliably appears every fall – was a blessing for pre-industrial-era farmers who harvested crops and an inspiration for era songwriters Tin Pan Alley in Neil Young.
Harvest moons are full moons that occur every year as close as possible to the fall equinox, or early fall, typically September 22 or 23. This year’s harvest moon arrives on September 20 and will appear exactly opposite the sun at 7:54 p.m. EDT.
It is called the harvest moon because the moon rises at about the same time every night for a few nights in a row in the northern hemisphere. It provides ample moonlight in the early evening for farmers harvesting summer crops.
The phenomenon occurs due to the position of the moon in the northern part of the sky at this time of year. In the northern hemisphere, the farther north an object is from the equator, the longer it is visible in the sky.
In China, they celebrate the harvest moon with moon cakes and lanterns on their Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival because they believed the moon was at its fullest size. brilliant and fuller.
Throughout history, different cultures have celebrated full moons because they were a way of signaling seasonal changes, as the moon’s orbit around the Earth is a fairly consistent way of measuring the time that happening without using calendars.
The moon takes about 30 days to circle the Earth, which is called a lunar cycle. Each lunar cycle is divided into eight lunar phases based on the position of the moon in relation to the sun.
Another way to measure time was to identify the solstices and equinoxes of the year, which signal the start of the seasons due to the Earth’s orbit around the sun.
The spring equinox, or vernal, occurs around March 20 or 21, and like the fall equinox, it is when day and night are of equal length. But the days will continue to lengthen as more light is emitted on Earth until the summer solstice.
The summer solstice occurs around June 20 or 21 and has the most days of the year, at least in the northern hemisphere. After that, the days will become shorter until the winter solstice of December 21 or 22, when there is the least daylight of all other days.
The etymology behind the word “lunatic”, synonymous with mentally ill, comes from the Latin root of luna, which means the moon. People as far back as 400 BC noticed that people’s mental states were affected by the lunar cycle.
The moon’s gravitational force causes many visible changes on Earth, affecting ocean tides, animal migration patterns, and humans’ ability to sleep. And full moons have been heralded through time to be the most impactful.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac, a reference work published since the 18th century, named the various full moons from names used by Native American, American colonial, and European sources, so their meanings derive from features of the northern hemisphere.
And in Christianity, if the moon appears before the spring equinox, it is known as the Lent Moon marking the last full moon of winter. If it appears after the equinox, it is known as the paschal moon to mark the first full moon of spring.
Besides the traditional names given to full moons according to the calendar, other special types of moons may appear and have names that denote them.
Since the moon completes its final cycle about 11 days before the end of Earth’s orbit, every two and a half years a blue Moon occurs. It was once called an additional full moon existing during a season, since each of the four seasons has three. Now it is more commonly used to describe a month that contains two full moons.
Another special type of moon is called a super moon. This happens when the full moon falls at perigee – its closest point to Earth in its orbit. Perigee is when the moon is 225,744 miles from Earth and appears larger and brighter than a normal full moon.
When the moon reaches its peak, it is furthest from Earth with a distance of 251,966 miles. If a full moon occurs while the moon is at its peak, it is called a microlune.
A Moon of blood occurs during a total lunar eclipse, that is, when the Earth aligns exactly between the moon and the sun. The moon appears red because the sun is completely obscured by the earth, so the only light that reaches the moon is from the earth’s atmosphere. It may have a red tint as it reflects the light from sunsets and sunrises that occur on Earth.
PHOTOS The Associated Press, AFP
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