Harvest Moon Tonight! Two Full Moons In October, Rare Blue Moon on Halloween

As if 2020 couldn’t get any weirder, this October will see not one, but two full moons – and the second falls on Halloween.

October’s first full moon will be on Oct. 1 and will be the harvest moon, which is the name given to the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. Typically, the full harvest moon occurs in September, but the Sept. 2 full moon this year was too early to make the cut. Last year’s harvest moon occurred on Friday, Sept. 13.

The harvest moon got its name from the practice of harvesting crops under the light of the full moon, according to the Farmer’s Almanac. During the harvest moon, the moon will appear full for about three days.

October will then close out with another full moon, on the night of Halloween. This will be a rare blue hunter’s moon. A blue moon is a second full moon in the same month. It occurs once every two or three years, which is how the phrase “once in a blue moon” originated. A hunter’s moon is the name for the next full moon after the harvest moon.

A full moon on Halloween, which would automatically be a blue moon, in every time zone hasn’t happened since 1944. In some time zones, however, a full moon occurs on Halloween every 19 years.

On Halloween, the moon will rise at 10:49 a.m. EDT. It will also mark the last day of Daylight Saving Time, meaning our clocks will need to be set back by an hour at 2 a.m. on Nov. 1.