The first full moon of the summer rises Wednesday night. It's been dubbed the Strawberry Moon because of the season when berries ripen.
The moon will officially rise at 8:48 p.m. in Western Washington, though you'll need to allow 5-10 minutes for the moon to be visible above the Cascades. It will reach fullness by 9:53 p.m.
Astronomically, there isn't anything remarkable about tonight's full moon. Yes, it will look reddish or pinkish when it rises. And yes, it will look larger than normal — but this always happens when the moon is near the horizon.
The name Strawberry Moon comes from Native American tribes who assigned different names to lunar cycles to keep track of time.
Almost all early peoples around the world used the lunar month (the time between full moons) to keep track of the passage of time and seasons. They usually named a full moon based on some significant event that occurred around that time.
In the United States, we tend to use the names popularized by Native Americans in the Northeast. This may be in part be due to early publications like the Farmers Almanac. But there is a wide variation across the country. In some cases, the same tribes had more than one name for the same moon.
Wednesday's Strawberry Moon goes by several names:
Strawberry Moon — Algonquin, Sioux, Chippewa, Ojibwe
When They Hill Corn Moon — Algonquin (2nd name)
Green Corn Moon — Cherokee
When the Buffalo Bellows Moon — Arapaho
Raspberry Moon — Shawnee
There many more June Full Moon names, including two Pacific Northwest native peoples:
Birth Moon — Tlingit
Berries Ripen Moon — Haida
In the Southern Hemisphere, where seasons are opposite ours, the names can be very different. Keep in mind, tonight's full moon is the first full moon of winter there. Some of the June full moon names are Cold Moon, Oak Moon, and Long Night's Moon, reminiscent of our names in January. And not surprisingly, their names for January's full moon include Strawberry Moon and Honey Moon.
Technically the full moon only happens for a moment: when the sun and the moon are on exactly opposite sides of the earth. However, it appears full for most of the day before and after it is actually "full". So you should have a chance to see the Strawberry Moon peaking between the clouds that will be hanging around for the next few days. And if you miss it? You can catch the Full Buck Moon (or the Thunder Moon, etc.) in July!
