When to See the Full Strawberry Supermoon in June
I don’t know about you, but I barely recovered from the spectacular May lunar eclipse , only to find out there would be a full moon in the June sky. We are not worthy of your generosity, Moon Goddess of the Full Moon.
June’s full moon, called the “Strawberry Moon”, will rise on Tuesday, June 14th. The full “Strawberry Moon” actually peaks at 7:52 a.m. ET, so we won’t be able to see it, but if you look to the southeast just after sunset, the supermoon hovers majestically across the night sky.
What is a “supermoon” and what makes it so super?
Coined in 1979, the term “supermoon” refers to a full moon that occurs when the moon is near the perigee of its orbit, the point at which it is closest to Earth. Because the supermoon is closer to us, it appears slightly larger and brighter than a normal full moon. The tides are higher and lower.
However, the main reason the Moon appears larger or smaller in the sky is how close it appears to objects on Earth. This perceptual illusion makes a full moon rising on the horizon appear huge no matter where the moon is on its orbital path.
Why is the June full moon called the “Strawberry Moon”?
Like all lunar names, the name June is unofficial. “Strawberry Moon” is what the Algonquian, Ojibwe, Dakota, and Lakota peoples (among others) call the last moon of spring/first moon of summer, because that’s when you’re harvesting strawberries.
In Europe, where there were no strawberries, the June moon was called the “Pink Moon” after the flower, or “Honey Moon”, from which we may have received the word “honeymoon”, since June was the peak month. For marriage.
According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac , the Anishinaabe called June Moon “Blossoming Moon” and the Cherokee called “Green Corn Moon”. My favorite name for the June moon is from the Tlingit who call it the “Birth Moon.” Simple, elegant and comprehensive.
A Brief History of “June”, “Moon” and “Spoon”
The rhymes “June”, “moon” and “spoon” are shorthand for the beaten, clichéd “standard rhymes” in poetry and songwriting. It appears in both ” Shine, Harvest Moon ” of 1903 and ” By the Light of a Silvery Moon ” of 1909. (Both songs are devoted to caresses: “Spoon” in this context means “to hug”.)
With the word “spoon” removed, the rhyme appears in more songs than you can count, including ” My Love Is Unlimited” and ” I Love Singa “, both from 1936. A few more contemporary examples of June/Moon rhymes include the 2005 Smashing Pumpkins song ” Bye June “, Eminem’s ” Space Bound ” released in 2010, and Prince’s 1987 ” Sign ‘o the Times “.