Sometimes, October’s full moon even happens early enough in the month that it becomes the Harvest Moon, which is defined as the full moon that’s closest to the fall equinox.
The next time you’ll get to see the full moon on Halloween is 2020, and if you miss that, you’ll have to wait 15 years to see it in 2035. Precious stones such as amethyst are used to ward off evil, and sacred flowers like chrysanthemum are used when working with spirits, such as in rituals to commune with long-dead ancestors.ĭespite the Blood Moon’s spooky associations, it rarely actually happens on Samhain or Halloween night itself. As October’s full moon occurs right before Samhain, the Gaelic mid-autumn festival that has evolved into Halloween today, Neo Pagans consider the month of the Blood Moon to be a special time denoting the change of seasons and a prime opportunity to contact dead loved ones, given the thinning of the veil between the physical world and the spiritual world. Scientific explanations aside, the Hunter’s Moon or Blood Moon still holds an undeniable aura of mystique and power. This is because you’re seeing it through a thicker atmosphere, which scatters more blue light and lets more red light pass through to reach your eyes. In addition, observing the moon at the horizon makes it look redder. When you observe the moon while it’s near the horizon, it gives off the illusion of being bigger while it’s in fact the same size. The Hunter’s Moon rises early in the evening, which means that you are more likely to see it near the horizon. There’s a reason why English folks in the Middle Ages called October’s full moon the Blood Moon, and it’s the exact same reason why even Halloween imagery today often features a large, low-hanging moon with an eerie reddish glow. Humans through the ages have always found autumn’s full moons to be creepy, and not without good reason. To Neo Pagans, however, the Hunter’s Moon is known by a far more morbid name - the Blood Moon. It simply rises earlier, soon after sunset, which would give hunters plenty of bright moonlight to hunt by during the early evenings. Contrary to popular belief, the Hunter’s Moon isn’t actually bigger or brighter than usual. October’s full moon is commonly called the Hunter’s Moon, harkening back to European and Native American traditions where hunters would use the light of the full moon to track down their prey and stock up for the coming winter. The New Moon will happen later in October on Tuesday, October 25th. The Full Moon for this month will occur in the second week on Sunday, October 9th.