The Full Moon – A Lunar Lesson

By Oceana O’Boyle

 

 

 

 

Staying with the science theme that I usually write about, I will be exploring the full moon, which is “the lunar phase that occurs when the moon is completely illuminated as seen from the earth,” according to Wikipedia.

“This occurs when the moon is in opposition to the sun. This means that the hemisphere of the moon that is facing the earth is almost fully illuminated by the sun and appears round,” says Wikipedia.

According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the full moon of each month has a special name.

• January – Wolf Moon
• February – Snow Moon
• March – Worm Moon
• April – Pink Moon
• May – Flower Moon
• June – Strawberry Moon
• July – Buck Moon
• August – Sturgeon Moon
• September – Corn Moon
• October – Hunter’s Moon
• November – Beaver Moon
• December – Cold Moon

Some of the names are easy to figure out and some aren’t. For example, the Worm, Strawberry and Beaver Moon were named by Native American tribes for what they were seeing in nature around the time of those moons.

I hope you learned something new about the full moon, either about its many names, when it occurs or how it works.