One of the more well known or commonly known full moons is the Harvest Moon. It has been the subject of much folk lore, poems, and there is even a famous song! The full harvest moon is the full Moon that occurs closest to the
autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in
September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of
harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this
Moon. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice, the chief Indian
staples, are now ready for gathering.
Often, the Harvest Moon seems to be bigger or brighter or more colorful
than other moons. These effects have to do with the seasonal tilt of
the earth. The warm color of the moon shortly after it rises is an
optical illusion, based on the fact that when the moon is low in the
sky, you are looking at it through a greater amount of atmospheric
particles than when the moon is overhead. The atmosphere scatters the
bluish component of moonlight (which is really reflected white light
from the sun), but allows the reddish component of the light to travel
a straighter path to your eyes. Hence all moons (and stars and planets)
look reddish when they are low in the sky.
According to NASA: The Harvest Moon is no ordinary full moon; it behaves in a special way.
Throughout the year the Moon rises, on average, about 50 minutes later each day. But near the autumnal equinox, which comes this year on Sept. 22nd, the day-to-day difference in the local time of moonrise is only 30 minutes. The Moon will rise around sunset tonight–and not long after sunset for the next few evenings. That comes in handy for northern farmers who are working long days to harvest their crops before autumn. The extra dose of lighting afforded by the full Moon closest to the equinox is what gives the Harvest Moon its name.
There are many interesting stories and mythologies around this moon.
The Harvest Moon is also known as the Wine Moon, as this is a time after the grapes have been harvested and wine is made.
The Chinese Traditional name for this moon is the Chrysanthemum Moon.
Please check out Mambo Sam’s Blog about the Chinese Harvest Moon Festival ! It was great fun with Moon Cakes last year!
The Cherokee call this Nut Moon (because of harvesting some species of nuts from trees….not for the other reason you might be thinking 😉 )
The Choctaw call this the Mulberry Moon.
The Celts call this the Singing Moon as after the seasonal harvests are complete comes a time for acceptance,
mellowing, and rest after labor.
It has been so named in reference to the festive attitude known to
every laborer who has toiled to complete work necessary to the survival
of the community and now celebrates the completion of those labors.
Under the Harvest Moon
by Carl Sandburg
Under the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers.
Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.
The Harvest Moon by Longfellow
It is the Harvest Moon! On gilded vanes
And roofs of villages, on woodland crests
And their aerial neighborhoods of nests
Deserted, on the curtained window-panes
Of rooms where children sleep, on country lanes
And harvest-fields, its mystic splendor rests!
Gone are the birds that were our summer guests,
With the last sheaves return the laboring wains!
All things are symbols: the external shows
Of Nature have their image in the mind,
As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves;
The song-birds leave us at the summer’s close,
Only the empty nests are left behind,
And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.
However you choose to celebrate this moon, even if its just with a cup of tea and a few quiet moments in the grass appreciating it’s beauty, Happy Autumn Everyone!
Much Light and Love,
Sister Bridget
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