The Hunter's Moon
October's full moon
Preparation, turning inward, the last light
The full moon following the Harvest Moon, which usually puts it in October and occasionally in November. It appears in the 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac list among the names credited to 'early English ancestors'. Its alternative, Blood Moon, causes endless confusion — here it refers to the season, not to the coppery colour of a moon in eclipse.
Where the name actually comes from
The honest attribution
In the 1937 English list. Defined by its relation to the Harvest Moon — it is the one that follows it — so it can fall in October or November.
Also called: Blood Moon, Dying Grass Moon, Travel Moon, Sanguine Moon.
How it tends to be kept
- Traditionally the moon for laying in stores before winter
- Like the Harvest Moon, it rises soon after sunset for several nights running
- Many people mark it as the last outward-facing moon before the dark half
Questions the month asks
- What am I laying in for the dark months?
- What do I need to finish before the light goes?
- What am I carrying that I don't need to?
Prompts are invitations to notice, not assignments — tradition offered as tradition.