Full ‘Strawberry Moon' in June—What It Means and How It Got Its Name
Had enough of the false springs already? Fed up with the never-ending winter blues lasting into mid-May?
If so, the next full moon might be a harbinger of better weather.
The so-called Strawberry Moon this year turns full on Wednesday, June 11, at 3:44 a.m. Eastern Time. Traditionally it encompassed the whole lunar month of June—not just the full moon period—and signalled the start of hot weather.
The full 'Strawberry Moon' sounds deliciously colourful. No, it won't turn red or even pinkish. Compared to September's full Corn Moon or April's Pink Moon, the Strawberry Moon's hue is little affected by its proximity to the horizon, which filters red light through Earth's atmosphere like a pair of giant sunglasses, tinting the moon rust red around the autumn and spring equinoxes.
Rather, the Strawberry Moon refers to, well, strawberries.
Full moons have always been tied to the seasons in which they fall. The blooming of ripe-red strawberries in June signified the coming of summer.
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As avid readers of the Old Farmer's Almanac may know, many full moon nicknames hail from colonial, Native American, and European folklore. There are a plethora of monikers across the lunar calendar. The Hunter's Moon denotes the seasonal filling of stores with hunted game before winter, the Worm Moon implies thawing soil in springtime, and so on.
A full Strawberry Moon rises over a field in 2024.
Shutterstock/KellyAnnImages
Wild strawberries grow throughout North America—from Alaska to Florida and everywhere in between—and were a vital food source for Native American tribespeople. They thus honoured that June-flowering berry with its own moon. The name stuck.
Per the Old Farmer's Almanac, it was the Algonquin, Ojibwe, Dakota, Lakota, Chippewa, Oneida, and Sioux tribes who first called it the Strawberry Moon. Various tribal names exist for the June full moon based on their particular climates, flora, and fauna. There's the Blooming Moon of the Anishinaabe and Green Corn Moon of the Cherokee.
New life has also inspired moon names such as the Egg Laying Moon and Hatching Moon of the Cree people.
Originating in ancient times, the name for the month of June itself came from the Roman goddess of marriage, Juno, and has for Europeans long been a traditional month of marriage. So, as Europeans also invented the nicknames Honey Moon and Mead Moon for this lunar month, it appears that's where the term 'honeymoon' came from.
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