Weird Halloween will get even weirder with the rare full moon on October 31
Setting the mood for a Halloween like never before, it will be a rare full moon on October 31st.
Shining on the trick or treating nights that weren't canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and those that weren't canceled but later rescheduled when remnants of a tropical storm flooded the area with rain Thursday through today, there will be a moon blue full. .
A blue moon, which is the second full moon on a moon. Each Halloween full moon is a blue moon due to the 29.5-day average spacing between full moons.
The first full moon in October 2020, the Harvest Moon, shone on October 1, setting the time for the second on the last day of the month, Saturday, which is Halloween.
"A blue moon is a fairly rare phenomenon that involves the appearance of an additional full moon within a given period," according to Space.com. "But in what period? It turns out that there are two definitions of the term, and one arose from a misunderstanding of the other.
"The oldest meaning defines a blue moon as the third full moon in a season that has four full moons. Called a seasonal blue moon, this occurs approximately every 2.5 years.
“More recently, the term blue moon has been applied to the second full moon within a single calendar month. There are approximately 29.5 days between full moons, so it is unusual for two full moons to fit in a 30- or 31-day month. This means that February will never have a blue moon. "
The term has nothing to do with the actual color of the moon. According to NASA, “Most blue moons look pale gray and white, indistinguishable from any other moon you've ever seen. Squeezing a second full moon into a calendar month does not change the physical properties of the moon itself, so the color remains the same. "
The full moon, which will peak at 10:51 a.m. but it will continue in its fullness throughout the night, on Halloween it is much rarer than the blue moon. According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, the full moon occurs on Halloween only every 18-19 years.
The last previous full moon on Halloween occurred in 2001, and the next will be in 2039.
This upcoming full moon is also known as the Hunter's Moon, based on Native American traditions that marked this time of year as the period to store game meat for the upcoming winter.
And it will be a mini-moon because the Moon will be at its farthest orbital point from Earth, its apogee, on Halloween.
Decades of horror movies would have us believe that the full moon on Halloween will also have a supernatural impact on everything from werewolves to indestructible masked killers.
And from an astrological perspective, "full moons in astrology are already a supercharged time in the lunar cycle," writes Nina Kahn, author of the books Astrology for Life and The Joy of Hex, on Bustle.com.
But the upcoming lunation on October 31 is even more auspicious as it takes place on Samhain, the pagan holiday which is also known as the 'New Year of the Witches'. During Samhain, the 'veil' between the world of the living and the dead is believed to be thinning, meaning that we have easier access to other realms, which could make the practice of mystical divination arts like the tarot is even more powerful. "
