When you hear about a Strawberry Moon that’s going to be visible in Pasadena Thursday night through early Friday, don’t expect to see a strawberry colored moon when you go outside to moon watch.
It’s not the moon’s color that gives it that name.It’s more folklore than color, NASA explains.
On its Solar System Exploration webpage, NASA says the Maine Farmer’s Almanac began publishing Native American names for the full moons of the year in the 1930s.
“According to this Almanac, the Algonquin tribes of what is now the northeastern United States called this the Strawberry Moon,” NASA writes. “The name comes from the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries in the northeastern United States.”
Europeans in the old days named this full moon the Mead Moon or Honey Moon. Mead, the drink fermented from honey mixed with water and sometimes with fruits, spices, grains, or hops, is also called honey wine in some countries. Other writings suggest that the time around the end of June was when honey was ready for harvesting, which made this the “sweetest” Moon.
In Pasadena and most of Los Angeles County, the Strawberry Moon, said to be the last supermoon for 2021, rises at 8:35 p.m. Thursday night and sets at 5:24 a.m.
Skies will be clear Thursday, the National Weather Service said, so you’d most likely see the Strawberry Moon at 100-percent illumination through the night. Besides that, the moon should be about seven percent bigger and 15 percent brighter than usual, since this full moon is closer to the Earth than most other full moons of the year.
NASA says the Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from early Wednesday morning through early Saturday morning.
