Don’t Miss Blue Hunter’s Rare Moon on Halloween
With the full moon, the “madmen” come.
At least that’s what I can believe in working in the newsroom for years. A former news editor and reporter for my newspaper was convinced that there was some truth in the legend that the full moon made people behave a little silly .
So what is it about Halloween this year with a full moon? Is it a hunter’s moon too, is it a blue moon too ? Ugh, like 2020.
Full moon
The funny thing is that some statistics seem to support the idea that bad shit happens during the full moon, such as an article from the British Medical Journal that concludes: “The increase in crime on full moon days may be related to” human tides ”. waves “caused by the gravitational attraction of the moon”. A? According to Scientific American ,
“The Greek philosopher Aristotle and the Roman historian Pliny the Elder suggested that the brain was the wettest organ in the body and therefore most susceptible to the harmful effects of the moon, which triggers the tides.”
The Farmers’ Almanac states that humans are 60% water, so if the Moon can affect ocean tides so strongly that they swell the earth’s crust, it can undoubtedly also work with its moon magic on us mere mortals.
Well, not quite. This long-standing belief is probably simply the result of confirmation bias, says Bustle, a tendency to seek and remember information that confirms what you already believe. So, if something strange happens during a full moon, it’s easy to attribute that weirdness to the Moon rather than logic.
“Consider the statistic that dogs are 28% more likely to be admitted to the emergency room on a full moon night than on any other night,” said Matteo Cantiello, chief scientist at Authorea and a theoretical astrophysicist at the Kavli Institute, to Bustle. This is probably due to the fact that people are more likely to take their dog out at night during the full moon. It offers more light, but it is still dark, which increases the chances of injury to Little Bailey or Gizmo.
Just like my old news editor, who has spent nearly 20 years covering police and courts, pointed out that crimes do go up during a full moon. “We will definitely start hearing weird police calls on the scanner, and eventually someone will announce, ‘Aha, the moon is full! ”, – she told me.
Living science also notes the rise in crime on the full moon, but does not blame insanity.
“People are more active on full moon than on moonless nights. An especially beautiful full moon can take families into the night to admire it, and lovers to local corners. Robbers and other criminals who do their trade at night also use moonlight to carry out their dirty deeds. ”
Hunter moon
But since this is a year, the Halloween full moon has a few extra quirks. Firstly, it is a bloody moon, which is also called a sanguine or hunting moon. The Hunter Moon is the full moon that occurs after the full moon in October, which is the closest full moon to the autumn equinox (this was September 22 of this year).
According to the Farmers’ Almanac, the hunting moon got its name from the Native Americans, who, thanks to its brightness, could hunt in order to stockpile food for the winter.
Blue Moon
According to EarthSky, Saturday’s full hunter moon will also be a blue moon, which has two definitions. Blue Moon is the second full moon in the same month, which is not all that common – the last was in March 2018. The blue moon is also the third of four full moons in a single season , which astronomers consider to be the time from the solstice. before the equinox. This is also quite unusual: in most three-month seasons there are only three full moons, not four. The next seasonal blue moon is in August 2021.
You won’t see another full moon on Halloween night until 2039 – the last one happened in 1944 – so enjoy the night sky this Saturday.
And maybe stay closer to home. And keep the dog inside.