This month’s full moon at 5:38 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16, is known as the Full Buck Moon. At this time, a buck’s antlers are in full growth mode.
This Full Moon was also known as the Thunder Moon because thunderstorms are so frequent during this month. Thunder Moon, a tribute from the Algonquin to a time of year when spectacular electrical storms rake the northern forests.
The Chinese deserve credit for an equally ominous name. The moon coincides with the Hungry Ghost Festival, a time when the living honor the dead by leaving food and drink to the ancestors. Their name? The Moon of the Hungry Ghosts.
In medieval England, the moon had a more cheerful connotation. Crops were nearing harvest and if the fields were tall and healthy, the farmers went out to celebrate with their favorite drink, a fermented mixture of honey, malt, yeast and water (an acquired taste).
Today farmers might call it The Beer Moon, but back then the growers knew it as the Mead Moon.