From the book When The Moon Is Full, A Lunar Year. By Penny Pollack, Illustrated by Mary Azarian.

Tonight is a full moon.  It is October, so that makes the full moon a “Hunter’s Moon.”  According to the website earthsky.org:

The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. The Hunter’s Moon is the full moon after the Harvest Moon. For us in the Northern Hemisphere, the 2015 autumnal equinox came on September 23. The September 27 full moon – night of a total lunar eclipse – was the Northern Hemisphere’s Harvest Moon. So the full moon on October 26 and 27 is the Northern Hemisphere’s Hunter’s Moon.

And from The Old Farmer’s Almanac:

Some Native American tribes referred to October’s Moon as the Full Hunter’s Moon, as it was the time to go hunting in preparation for winter. This full Moon is also called the Travel Moon and the Dying Grass Moon.

This is the first Full Moon following the Harvest Moon last month. It rises around sunset and sets around sunrise, the only night in the month when the Moon is in the sky all night long.

My mother’s hand-drawn Halloween card for 2015

My mother sends hand-drawn Halloween cards every year.  I got mine yesterday, and here it is.  She included a few lines from George Cooper’s poem October’s Party.    Here is the poem in its entirety:

 

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came—
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.

The Chestnuts came in yellow,
The Oaks in crimson dressed;
The lovely Misses Maple
In scarlet looked their best;
All balanced to their partners,
And gaily fluttered by;
The sight was like a rainbow
New fallen from the sky.

Then, in the rustic hollow,
At hide-and-seek they played,
The party closed at sundown,
And everybody stayed.
Professor Wind played louder;
They flew along the ground;
And then the party ended
In jolly “hands around.”

Happy Halloween!