Full Moon Names

In prehistoric times before the modern calendars, people would base the division of time into solar days, solar years and moon cycles in fact some cultures and religions still use lunisolar calendars.
The name 'Moon' is probably derived from ancient languages meaning 'month' as a verb related to a measure of time
In most cultures throughout time the full moon was given a name that Symbolises the time of year IE Harvest moon in Autumn.

Originally the names for the full moon was based around the seasons and not the calendar month in which it occurred, as calendar months as we know them did not exist, this modern method also causes some names to be skipped - as in February when there may not be a full moon and some calendar months having two full moons, this is because the moon cycle is approximately 29.5 days so it doesn't follow the modern calendar.

Full moon names by season (Northern or Southern Hemisphere):

After the winter solstice:
OLD MOON, or Moon After Yule
Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, or WOLF MOON
Sap Moon, Crow Moon or LENTEN MOON

After the spring equinox:
Grass Moon, EGG MOON or Paschal Moon
Planting Moon, or MILK MOON
Rose Moon, FLOWER MOON, or Strawberry Moon

After the summer solstice:
Thunder Moon, or HAY MOON
Green Corn Moon, or GRAIN MOON
FRUIT MOON, or Harvest Moon

After the autumnal equinox:
HARVEST MOON, or Hunters Moon
HUNTERS MOON, Frosty Moon, or Beaver Moon
Moon Before Yule, or Long Night Moon, OAK MOON

Northern Hemisphere full moon names by month:

January: Old Moon, Moon After Yule
February: Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, Wolf Moon
March: Sap Moon, Crow Moon, Lenten Moon
April: Grass Moon, Egg Moon, Pink Moon
May: Flower Moon, Planting Moon, Milk Moon
June: Rose Moon, Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon
July: Thunder Moon, Hay Moon
August: Green Corn Moon, Grain Moon
September: Fruit Moon, Harvest Moon
October: Harvest Moon, Hunters Moon
November: Hunters Moon, Frosty Moon, or Beaver Moon
December: Cold Moon, Moon Before Yule, or Long Night Moon

Native American, Colonial American, or other traditional North American sources

Wolf Moon – January
Snow Moon – February
Worm Moon – March
Pink Moon – April
Flower Moon – May
Strawberry Moon – June
Buck Moon – July
Sturgeon Moon – August
Harvest Moon – September or October
Full Corn Moon (Harvest) – September
Hunter's Moon (Harvest) – October
Beaver Moon – November
Cold Moon – December

For illustration only - NOT actually Blue

Blue Moon

'Once in a Blue Moon.'
Meaning something which doesn't happen very often.
So, what is a Blue moon?.
There are twelve names for the full moons, but as the full moon cycles every 29.5 days this means that every 2 to 3 years there are thirteen full moons in a year.
This thirteenth full moon is called the 'Blue Moon' and is inserted to bring the moon cycles back into alignment with the solar year, the colour of the Blue Moon is not blue, just normal bright grey.

When do Blue Moons occur?
This is where it starts to get a little confusing, this all depends on how we allocate names to the full moons, the modern method is to name the moon according to which calendar month the full moon occurs.
Using this method, a blue moon will be the second full moon in any calendar month, however this may differ for different parts of the world (due to different time zones).

The traditional naming scheme was to give the full moon names according to the season based on the times of solstice and equinox, so normally each season has three full moons, but again once every 2-3 years one season will have four full moons. In this case the third of the four full moons will be a Blue Moon.

But it doesn't stop there, in the ecclesiastical calendar the dates for the movable feasts such as Easter and lent are governed by the spring equinox and the first full moon after March 21st (fixed date for spring equinox).
The naming of the moons start with the first full moon after March 21st (Paschal moon) and are named consecutively until the last one (Lenten moon) the moon just before march 21st the following year.
Because we get an extra full moon every 2-3 years this causes the Lenten moon to appear too early, IE not the moon before the 21 March, so a blue moon is inserted between the Wolf moon and the Lenten moon so that the Lenten moon is once again in the correct place. *see below*

However we allocate the names to the full moon, a blue moon will occur seven times in each 19 year metonic cycle, or 12 short years (12 moons) and 7 long years (13 moons) this is a total of 235 lunar cycles, this also means that every 19 years the moon phase will occur on the same calendar date, so if it was a full moon on the day you were born, you will not see another full moon on your birthday until you are 19 years old.

This is a simplification as the ecclesiastical lunar calendar follows an alternating 29/30 day lunar cycle and does not always coincide with the astronomical full moon. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computus for more details

Super Moon

A Super Moon or perigean full moon is a full moon which can appear larger than usual, this happens when the moons orbit is at it's closest point to earth, usually three or four consecutive full moons are classified as super moons and occur every 14 synodic months (moon cycles).

The increased size of the super moon is difficult to distinguish from normal as it is only 14% larger, but it is about 30% brighter than at it's farthest point. Some believe that supermoons are linked to natural disasters such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, but this is unproven, however they can have a small effect on the height of spring tides.

Micromoons, the opposite to supermoons, when the moon appears smaller than normal do have an effect on solar eclipses because the moon shadow is smaller and does not cover the whole disk of the sun so won't produce a total eclipse only an annular eclipse.

Blood Moon

Blood moon is the name given to the Moon during a Total Lunar Eclipse, this is when the Sun, Earth and Moon are in perfect alignment and the Earth casts a shadow onto the surface of the full moon.

Total lunar eclipse 21 Jan 2019

Why does the moon turn Red?
As the Moon travels behind the Earth and into the shadow all of the direct light from the Sun is blocked, however, some light from the sun is refracted by the Earth's atmosphere acting like a lens where the light in the Green and Blue part of the spectrum is filtered out leaving only the Red, Orange and yellow light to fall onto the moon surface, this is called Rayleigh scattering.

A Blood Moon will occur about every two or three years. Lunar eclipses happen on a more regular basis, up to three per year but can only be seen from certain parts of Earth and some are only partial eclipses when only part of the Moon is in shadow.

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