A Rare Moon
We’ve all seen the moon. We see it almost every night. Some nights it lights up the sky while other nights are filled with darkness. Many of us don’t pay much attention to the moon because we’ve seen it all our lives, except for when the moon is pointed out. Those nights are most likely when the moon is full, looks orange, and seems closer to Earth. It happens a few times throughout the year and typically only lasts for a few hours. While some might argue that those are supermoons, when is the last time you saw an actual supermoon? Last Monday night, we had a supermoon and here’s what scientists and historians have to say about it.
The full moon that we had on Monday is called the ‘Pink Moon’ and is said to be linked to the end of the world. In ancient times, people believed that the event was linked to the appearance of beautiful flowers while others thought it signified the end of the world according to TheSun.com.
Some might wonder what exactly is a pink moon. A pink moon is a type of supermoon that occurs when a new full moon or full moon is closer to Earth than normal, and is the rare result of several space phenomena all occurring at once according to TheSun.com.
The name “pink moon” comes from Northern Native Americans, and they named it after a spring flower called Wild Ground Phlox, which is native to the eastern USA and one of the earliest widespread flowers of Spring according to TheSun.com. It’s got a pink hue and blossoms around the same time as April’s full moon. According to TheSun.com,”Natural phenomenon is always linked to the date of Easter because it appears after the spring equinox.” In other places around the world, the moon is referred to as the Egg Moon, Full Sprouting Grass Moon, Growing Moon or the Full Fish Moon according to TheSun.com
Some religions view the moon as a sign. “According to one Rabbi, the Moon becoming as large as the Sun is an “injustice” to God. This injustice will be rectified in the end of days,” Rabbi Berger said, according to BreakingIsraelNews. “In the end of days, the sun and the moon will be equally ‘great’. The full Moon – of which the Pink Moon is one form of – means different things to different religions.” According to Nasa,”There are a number of variations of the Hindu lunisolar calendar, but for many this full moon corresponds with the Hanuman Jayanti festival celebrating the birth of Lord Sri Hanuman. Every full Moon is a holiday in Sri Lanka, for Buddhists in Sri Lanka, this full Moon is Bak Poya, commemorating when the Buddha visited Sri Lanka and avoided a war by settling a dispute between chiefs,” all according to TheSun.com.
The effects on Earth caused by the Pink Moon is somewhat unknown. Some scientists believe the Pink Moon can cause small increases in tectonic activity because of the effects of the gravitational pull of Earth’s rocky satellite. A super moon may also bring the largest tides of the year according to TheSun.com. That’s because a closer moon exerts a stronger gravitational pull and creates more variation between the tides. However, according to TheSun.com, the effects of the Supermoon on Earth are minor, and several studies have concluded that there is nothing significant that can link the super moon to natural disasters.
According to TheSun.com, the reason a Pink Moon occurs is because when Earth’s rocky neighbour makes a close approach to our planet because the Moon’s orbit is off-centre, its distance to the Earth is greater at one end than the other. Not every Super Moon is a Pink Moon, although the moon sometimes turns an orange hue when it’s low in the sky because bluer wavelengths of the moonlight are filtered out by Earth’s atmosphere when it’s closer to the horizon as it rises which results in more of the red component of moonlight travelling directly into your eye making the moon appear red or orange according to TheSun.com. The moon can only really appear to have turned pink during a total lunar eclipse which is often referred to as a Blood Moon.
The Pink Moon is only one of many super moons this year. The next super moons are as follows: the Flower Moon will take place on May 7th, the Strawberry Moon on June 6th, the Buck Moon on July 5th, the Sturgeon Moon on August 3rd, the Full Corn Moon on September 2nd, the Hunter’s Moon on October 1st, the Beaver Moon on November 30th, and the Cold Moon will take place on December 30th.
Malakai • Mar 10, 2022 at 8:24 am
This is a great article.
Lily Yax • Aug 31, 2021 at 5:05 pm
I enjoyed reading this article for many reasons. The writer included many facts and sources. The pink moon is something I have never learned about. I liked learning what other cultures think about the pink moon. Overall I really enjoyed this article.
Adryanna Sellers • Aug 31, 2021 at 1:43 pm
I really like theses types of articles because I love learning about astrology. Also, awesome work on this article. It’s very descriptive and useful to people who like these things.
Gavin Smith • Aug 31, 2021 at 12:32 pm
Great article Rochelle, I think it was really good because I never really new about the supermoons. It was really cool on how religious people can see it as “the end days”. Keep up the good work.
Levi Bell • Aug 31, 2021 at 9:19 am
My name is Levi and my favorite part of this article is that the moon means different things to different religions and I also like the last part about all the super moons and that we only have one super moon this year and its the pink moon.
Isabella Gilvin • May 19, 2021 at 9:42 am
This is a great article! I love how you went into detail about how other people see the moon. I loved learning about the pink moon this article was very detailed and interesting.
AJ • May 14, 2021 at 2:32 pm
I really enjoyed this article and learning about the moon and what different people think about it. i looked up the pink moon and i loved the great pic of it. and i like you how you put it in context .
Braylee Pierce • May 12, 2021 at 9:54 am
I really enjoyed reading this article for a couple reasons. I liked getting to know more about the Pink Moon and other super moons from a scientific standpoint and a cultural one. I love learning about other cultures and religions, so learning about what super moons mean to different cultures and religions was really exciting for me.
Robert Trusty • May 12, 2021 at 9:53 am
I like this article and the moon being pink is cool.
Braylee Pierce • May 12, 2021 at 9:50 am
I enjoyed reading about this article for a few reasons. I liked learning about the Pink Moon and other super moons from a scientific standpoint and a cultural one. I love learning about other cultures and religions, so getting to know what these moons mean to them was amazing.
Julian • May 12, 2021 at 9:49 am
I really enjoyed this article and learning about the moon
Kaison Hipsher-Walker • May 12, 2021 at 9:44 am
This was an amazing article. I heard about this moon, but didn’t get to see it. So, hopefully I can see the next one.
Braxton Armstrong • May 7, 2021 at 2:07 pm
Great article Rochelle! It sounded like the moon had looked amazing and I had heard a lot about it, but I personally was not able to see it. This was an interesting article to read, keep up the great work!
Enoch Hines • May 7, 2021 at 2:05 pm
Great article Rochelle! I enjoyed reading about the significance in the moon. I did know about it but didn’t know really what it meant and just how much it means. Keep up the great writing!
faith abbott • May 7, 2021 at 9:33 am
I really enjoyed this article and learning about what the moon means to different people. I love the moon and learning about other cultures so having the two combined was very enjoyable.
Jack Salyers • May 7, 2021 at 9:21 am
Wonderful article Rochelle. This is a great piece of writing here Rochelle. Very Grammarly correct and very engaging. The Pink Mood is super interesting and I can’t wait to see the next super moon the rest of the year. Keep up the amazing writing.
Bella Panmei • May 7, 2021 at 8:49 am
Great article Rochelle! I heard about this moon viewing and even though I missed the opportunity to see it in person, I saw some really outstanding pictures that blew my mind. Many were sorely upset that it was not actually pink, but I still thought the moon looked beautiful. Keep up the amazing work!