When You Can See the Full Pink Moon in April at Its Peak of Brightness
The April full moon rises on Saturday, April 16 and peaks at 2:57 pm ET. Lifehack: Enjoy maximum Pink Moon lighting by listening to Nick Drake’s original 1972 Pink Moon bittersweet album – there are worse things you could be doing at 3am in the spring.
Why is the April full moon called the “Pink Moon”?
Even though it’s called a “Pink Moon”, the full moon in April doesn’t appear pink (a rip off if you ask me). According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac , the name refers to the early spring blooms of pink wildflowers called creeping phlox. which appear at this time of the year around the Appalachians from Pennsylvania to northern Georgia.
April moon, Easter and Pesach
The full moon in April is called the Easter Moon in the West. In the Jewish and Christian religions, the full moon after the vernal equinox determines the dates of both Passover and Passover. Passover this year is celebrated from April 15 to 23, with a seder scheduled for April 15 and 16 to coincide with the full moon. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon, which occurs on or after the vernal equinox. This year it’s April 17, so get your church shoes ready.
Other names for the April full moon
The most commonly used lunar nicknames come from Native Americans and are actually the names of the entire month, not the moon. The Dakotas refer to April as “The moon when the streams become navigable again.” The Lakota call it “The Moon When the Ducks Return”; and Kri is “frog moon”. But my favorite name for April comes from Anishinaabe: they call it Sucker Moon, but not because you’re a sucker if you think she’ll look pink. Anishinaabe refers to the lowly sucker fish, honoring its thankless job of cleaning up rivers, lakes, and streams and providing food after winter. Thank you bottom feeders!
Random, Surprising Fact About the Moon
Moonstones are incredibly valuable; they cost about $94 million a pound. The 842 pounds of lunar samples recovered by the US Apollo missions are considered national treasure and do not belong to private individuals. But in the early 1970s, Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford donated small lunar samples taken during the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions to 270 countries and states in the United States. About 159 of these goodwill stones are currently missing. Some have been lost. Some have been stolen. Some were just thrown away.