FLOWER MOON: May’s Moon, known in legend and folklore as the “Flower Moon,” will turn 100% astronomically full at 6:45 a.m. EDT on Thursday.
In medieval Europe the first day of May, or Beltane, was the day cows were moved to their summer pastures, providing them with rich nourishment to feed their newborn calves. This is why May’s Moon is also sometimes known as the “Full Milk Moon.”
In most areas of the Northern Hemisphere, flowers are abundant in late spring. Blossoms of brilliant color burst forth in both tree and meadow. Thus, the name of May’s Moon, the Full Flower Moon.
May also marks the end of hard frosts, making this the time of year when farmers begin to seed their fields. This led to May’s Moon also being known as the “Full Corn Planting Moon.”
No supermoon this time: Many media outlets are calling May’s Full Flower Moon a Supermoon, but Farmers’ Almanac states that it falls short of earning that moniker, and April’s Pink Moon was our true, and last, Supermoon of 2020.
Supermoons are caused by the shape of the Moon’s orbit, which is not a perfect circle, but an ellipse, or oval, shape. The Moon orbits the Earth once each month, and each month, it reaches a point farthest from the Earth, called apogee, and a point closest to the Earth, called perigee.
According to how a Supermoon is defined, it occurs when the Moon is at least 90% of the way to its perigee position at the same time it is in its “full” or “new” phase.
If you follow the 90% rule as noted above, you can have as many as three—and on some occasions even four or five—Supermoons in a single year, according to Farmers’ Almanac. For more supermoon information, visit www.farmersalmanac.com.
