Today is September 13, 2019, Friday.  You must have read in my earlier blog about ‘Triskaidekaphobia’ the fear of number 13 (from Greek tris (‘three’), kai (‘and’), and deka (‘ten’), and ‘Paraskevidekatriaphobia’ is the term used to describe the fear of ‘Friday the thirteenth’  – (Greek words paraskevi (‘Friday’) and dekatria (‘thirteen’) with –phobia as a suffix to indicate ‘fear’).

There is another astronomical significance for this Friday the 13^th  – it coincided with Full Moon.   Last time a full moon appeared on Friday the 13^th was in October of 2000.   This Full Moon is also called a ‘micro-moon’  because it is at its farthest point from Earth  – also known as its apogee.  Being at the farthest point, the moon appeared  around 14% smaller than usual and much dimmer than a normal Full Moon.

As this Full Moon fell immediately before Fall Equinox, It is called a Harvest Moon.

The term ‘Equinox’ comes from Latin meaning ‘equality of night and day.’   It occurs twice in a year – one in Spring (22 March) and one in Fall (22 September), that is when the Sun crosses the celestial equator, causing day and night to be of 12 hours each.   In Canada, Fall Equinox marks the beginning of Fall season.

‘Harvest Moon’ is an old European term applied to a full moon that rises closest to the beginning of fall.   In the earlier days when the farmers could not illuminate their farmland, the bright light of the moon facilitated farmers to work a little later into the night to bring in their crops well before Fall set in.

As if to facilitate harvest, the harvest moon rises 10 to 30 minutes after the sun sets, whereas most moons rise approximately 50 minutes after sunset.  In Toronto,  on September 13, the sun did set at 7:31 PM and the moon rose at 7:46 PM. This time gap between sunset and moon-rise was even shorter as one moved closer to the North Pole.

The next Full Moon on a Friday the 13^th  will appear in August 2049.