The Harvest Moon Facts and Folklore

Harvest Moon

The next full Moon will be TONIGHT (Thursday afternoon, Oct. 1, 2020), appearing "opposite" the Sun (in Earth-based longitude) at 5:05 p.m. EDT. The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Wednesday morning through Saturday morning.

"As the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox (the end of summer and start of fall), this is the Harvest Moon. During the harvest season farmers sometimes need to work late into the night by the light of the Moon. The full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the northern USA, and only 10 to 20 minutes later farther north in Canada and Europe. The Harvest Moon is an old European name with the Oxford English Dictionary giving 1706 as the year of its first published use. Most years the Harvest Moon falls in September but this is one of the years it falls in October."

Two Full Moons

"October 2020 is a 'Blue Moon' month with two full Moons. The first full Moon is on October 1st. The second, a so-called 'Blue Moon,' occurs on October 31st. In recent years, people have been using the name Blue Moon for the second of two full moons in a single calendar month. An older definition of Blue Moon is that it’s the third of four full moons in a single season."

NASA.GOV

Read more on the Harvest moon and some facts and folklore here.


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