The Harvest Moon appears from September 28 to 30!
The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Thursday through Saturday.
This year, the brilliant Harvest Moon first appears in the evening of Thursday, September 28, before reaching peak illumination at 5:58 A.M. EDT on Friday, September 29
One thing that sets the Harvest Moon apart from other full Moon names is that it’s not associated with a specific month, as the others are.
Instead, the Harvest Moon relates to the timing of the autumnal equinox (September 23, 2023), with the full Moon that occurs nearest to the equinox being the one to take on the name “Harvest Moon.”
This means that the Harvest Moon can occur in either September or October, depending on how the lunar cycle lines up with the Gregorian calendar.
The Harvest Moon does typically occur in September, taking the place of the full Corn Moon.
However, it occasionally lands in October instead, replacing the full Hunter’s Moon.
For several evenings, the moonrise comes soon after sunset. This results in an abundance of bright moonlight early in the evening, which was a traditional aid to farmers and crews harvesting their summer-grown crops. Hence, it’s called the “Harvest” Moon!
There are just a little over 12 complete Moon cycles every year, on average (there being about 29.53 days in a synodic month). The Harvest Moon isn’t like the other Moons.
- Usually, throughout the year, the Moon rises an average of about 50 minutes later each day.
- But for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the northern USA, and only 10 to 20 minutes later farther north in Canada and Europe.
Additionally, the Harvest Moon rises at sunset and then will rise very near sunset for several nights in a row because the difference is at a yearly minimum. It may almost seem as if there are full Moons multiple nights in a row!
While September’s full Moon is usually known as the Harvest Moon, if October’s full Moon happens to occur closer to the equinox than September’s, it takes on the name “Harvest Moon” instead. In this case, September’s full Moon is referred to as the Corn Moon.
This time of year—late summer into early fall—corresponds with the time of harvesting corn in much of the northern United States. For this reason, a number of Native American peoples traditionally used some variation of the name “Corn Moon” to refer to the Moon of either August or September. Examples include Corn Maker Moon (Western Abenaki) and Corn Harvest Moon (Dakota).
