Shine On

Did you know that tonight's full moon was special?  It's the hunter's moon, the first full moon after the harvest moon (which is the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox).  Traditionally, the crops were harvested and then people hunted to accumulate food for the winter. The hunter's moon provided plenty of light to hunt by.

Tony and I took a walk after dinner.  It was starting to get cloudy, and we watched the moon slip in and out of the clouds.   It didn't provide a whole lot of light, but we didn't really need it. Tonight's route took us through a subdivision, where street lights provided plenty of illumination, and through the grounds of the local high school, where a football game was being played.  The lights of the field were so bright it completely blocked out the moon.

I don't know if there's a Hunter's Moon theme song, but the whole time I was walking I had the song "Shine On, Harvest Moon" stuck in my head.  When we got home I was waiting for Tony to open the garage door so we could go inside and I did a little soft-shoe dance to go along with the music in my brain.  My body was silhouetted against the garage door as it went up.

According to the Farmer's Almanac, the Native American tribes that lived in what is now the northern and eastern United States kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon.  They are:

• 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 moon
• November – Beaver moon
• December – Cold moon