In the midst of these uncertain times, there is the ever-changing moon. Every night, a different face.
Perhaps the most familiar is the round full moon. It is the bane of werewolves! It is older than humans, and the inspiration of music and myth, stories, paintings, photographs and poetry.
The month of October offers crisp clear nights and two full moons! The full moon on October 1 is also called the harvest moon, as this was the full moon closest to the fall equinox on September 22. You can read more about the harvest moons here.
The second full moon in October will occur on October 31, a Halloween moon! Halloween is about midway between the fall equinox and the winter solstice. This full moon is also called a blue moon. Why? You can read more about blue moons, here.
A full moon on Halloween doesn’t happen every year, either. According to Earth Sky—
Every 19 years, the phases of the moon recur on (or near) the same calendar dates. Sure enough, looking 19 years into the future, we find the second full moon in October 2039 falling right on Halloween (October 31, 2039).
Yes, the moon has a schedule. You can find out when the next lunar eclipse will be. You can find the moon phase for the day you were born. And yet, the moon has magic and mystery, still. To see the waning crescent moon in the morning sky, as it has been for the past few days, is a surprise–like a wisp of cloud in cloudless blue.
There will be a new moon on October 16. And then, a thin waxing crescent in the evening sky, increasing every night until the full moon on the 31st. This is the wonder of the moon–waxing and waning, old and new again.
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Oh, great! Now all that stuff I think of doing "once in a blue moon" will be lining up to get done! Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks for reading! I thought it was really cool that the dates and moon phases repeat every 19 years.
But then, you never see the same moon twice...