harvest moon

English

Etymology

Extra light provides longer hours for the harvesting that occurs in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year.

Noun

harvest moon (plural harvest moons)

1. The first full moon of autumn by a tropical year.
2. The full moon nearest the autumn equinox, when the moon rises the latest and lowest in the sky and seems to appear the biggest, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.
   • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

     Boxer would even come out at nights and work for an hour or two on his own by the light of the harvest moon.

Synonyms

• wine moon, singing moon, elk call moon

Related terms

• wolf moon, hunger moon, old moon (January)
• snow moon, ice moon (February)
• worm moon, sap moon, sugaring moon, crow moon, storm moon (March)
• pink moon, egg moon, grass moon, rain moon, growing moon, wind moon (April)
• flower moon, planting moon, milk moon, hare moon (May)
• strawberry moon, rose moon, honey moon, mead moon (June)
• buck moon, thunder moon, deer moon, hay moon (July)
• sturgeon moon, corn moon, fruit moon, barley moon (August)
• harvest moon, gypsy moon (September)
• hunter's moon (October)
• beaver moon, frost moon, frosty moon, snow moon (November)
• cold moon, long night moon, winter moon (December)

Translations

first full moon of autumn

• Finnish: syksyn ensimmäinen täysikuu
• German: erster Vollmond (de) m im Herbst, Herbstvollmond m

full moon nearest the autumn equinox

• Finnish: syyskuun täysikuu
• German: Erntemond m, Herbstmond (de) m, Herbstvollmond m, Septembervollmond m
• Japanese: 中秋の名月 (ja) (chūshū no meigetsu)

See also

• blue moon
• wet moon