Date of
|
Name |
| January 1 January 31 February March 2 March 31 April 30 May 30 June 28 July 28 August 26 September 25 October 24 November 23 December 22 |
moon after Yule or old moon blue moon no full moon in February sap moon, crow moon or Lenten moon blue moon grass moon or milk moon planting moon or milk moon rose moon, flower moon or strawberry moon thunder moon or hay moon green corn moon or grain moon harvest moon or fruit moon hunters moon frosty moon or beaver moon moon before Yule |
| Source: CNN/Associated Press | |
If anyone knows the sources for moon names please send them to MoonNames@Vicioso.com and I'll add them here!
The term blue moon refers to a 2nd full moon within the same month. In 1999 there will be 2 of these, one in January and one in March. The name apparently comes from the color used to depict the 2nd moon in a month in the Farmer's Almanac.
According to L. E.: "blue moon, as far as I know, got that name from the Farmer's Almanac. Full moons were marked in red. The second full moon in same month was marked in blue, hence the term, blue moon."
According to Philip Hiscock's "Folklore of the Blue Moon," whose theses is that many of the moon names are recent in origin, adds the following:
Harvest Moon: "The Harvest Moon ... light(s) up the fields sometime after the fall equinox, enabling work to continue late into the night. Of course folklorists know that the traditional belief is widespread that certain crops harvested by the light of the moon, or alternatively in the waning of the moon, keep better than those cut at other times. The full Harvest Moon was a signal, to those who would listen, that it was time to start the last work of the year in the fields."
Hunters Moon: "The late fall Hunter's Moon was invented by analogy with the Harvest Moon, and some of the other almanac moon names have the same ring of later invention."
Blue Moon: "In late December 1990 ... I ... received Deborah Byrd's 'Astronomy' article from that month in which she attributed 'blue moon' to a note in a 1946 edition of 'Sky & Telescope (Magazine).' Research eventually pushed that date back to 1943, and to an unnamed Maine almanac."
The terms moon after/before Yule are self-evident.
LINKS:
 | The radio show Earth and Sky has an excellent description of Double Full Moons. |
| Philip Hiscock's "Folklore of the Blue Moon" has some literary references to blue moon and moon names in general. |
| The Farmer's Almanac |
| David Harper's "Blue Moon" describes the origins of the phrase "once in a blue moon" and has a Blue Moon Calendar to help figure when blue moons will occur. |
| Jean Meeus has written a book, Astronomical Algorithms, published by Willman-Bell, Inc. The book contains algorithms for positions and phases of the moon, among others. Software is also available from the publisher. |
