September – The Harvest Moon

Published on by Joan Hall

Hey, everyone. It’s time for the ninth in a series of posts about the names of full moons. If you missed the other posts of this series, you can click the following links.

September Harvest Moon
A Harvest Moon

This year’s September full moon is the Harvest Moon. I say this year because the Harvest Moon sometimes occurs in October. Want to know why? Read on.

Interesting Facts

  • The Harvest Moon is the name given to the full moon closest to the autumn equinox. Most years it falls in September, but every three years happens in October. When the Harvest Moon occurs in October, the September moon is usually known as the Corn Moon because it’s the time to harvest corn.
  • The full moon is the brightest object in the night sky. It has an apparent magnitude (the measure of a space object´s brightness as seen by an observer on Earth) of -12.74 compared with the sun’s magnitude of -26.74.
  • Folk-Rock singer Neil Young wrote and recorded a song titled “Harvest Moon.” If you’re interested in the video, click here.
  • The September moon is sometimes called “The Leaves Turning Moon.”
  • The Harvest Moon is today, September 20.
  • This year’s autumn equinox is September 22

Superstition

The full moon has been thought to cause insanity and even more famously, lycanthropy. One of the most popular beliefs was that a man or woman could turn into a werewolf if he or she, on a certain Wednesday or Friday, slept outside on a summer night with the full moon shining directly on his or her face.

Do you have a favorite song about the moon? Please share in the comments.

32 thoughts on “September – The Harvest Moon”

  1. Pingback: December – The Cold Moon – Joan Hall
  2. Pingback: November – The Beaver Moon – Joan Hall

  3. Many traditional Chinese holidays fall on the days of the full moon. As a child, the superstition was on the night of the 15th of the 7th month of the Lunar calendar (the full moon is on the 15th of each month in the Lunar calendar, so they’re different each year in the Gregorian calendar), if the girl lays on her back looking at the full moon with a white handkerchief covering the face, she could see the face of her future husband in the moon. I tried but only saw the handkerchief!!

    I checked and it seems like none of my immediate family members were born on the full moon. Fascinating posts, Joan.

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      1. I enjoyed these posts, Joan. I was interested in the moon cycles when I taught that in my class. I also studied the legends but not systematically. It gave me chuckles when I thought about my childhood experience.

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  4. Pingback: October – The Hunter’s Moon – Joan Hall

  9. Harvest Moon is a good song 🙂 I’m feeling this full moon, I barely slept a couple hours last night. I can feel the energy of this full moon and I know it will get stronger tonight.

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  12. I have loved every single one of your moon posts, Joan. I had not ever heard the superstition about sleeping under a full moon. Don’t think I’ll be trying it out. 🙂 Too many mosquitos in Texas. My favorite moon song is by Jamie Richards – The Man in the Neon Moon. 🙂 Not about a moon at all.

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