Pink Moon: April's full moon

Where the name Pink Moon comes from

The Pink Moon is not actually pink. As the Old Farmer’s Almanac explains it, the name refers to an early spring wildflower: moss pink, also called creeping phlox or wild ground phlox (Phlox subulata). The Farmers’ Almanac, a separate publication based in Maine, gives the same flower. Smithsonian Magazine’s coverage cites the Old Farmer’s Almanac for the explanation too.

Most coverage repeats this one source. Neither almanac names a particular nation or historical record for “Pink Moon.” The safest description is that it is the name used by American almanacs, not a translation of a known Indigenous name.

That fits the wider history of these names. The twelve-name list that circulates every year was assembled by almanacs from Indigenous, colonial and European sources and matched to calendar months for convenience. Indigenous names themselves varied from nation to nation, and many described a lunar month rather than one night. The full moon names overview has more on where the list came from.

Other names for April’s full moon

April has an unusually rich set of alternatives in the Old Farmer’s Almanac, which credits each to a nation. These are the almanac’s attributions, and we have not confirmed them with the nations themselves.

• Breaking Ice Moon: Algonquin, in the almanac’s wording.
• Moon When the Streams Are Again Navigable: Dakota.
• Moon When the Geese Lay Eggs: certain Dakota peoples.
• Moon When the Ducks Come Back: Lakota.
• Moon of the Red Grass Appearing: Oglala.
• Budding Moon of Plants and Shrubs: Tlingit.
• Broken Snowshoe Moon: Anishinaabe.
• Sucker Moon: Anishinaabe, in April or May.
• Frog Moon: Cree.
• Sugar Maker Moon: Western Abenaki.

Indian Country Today (ICT), a Native-run news outlet, gives the Ojibwe name Iskigamizige-giizis, the Maple Sugar Moon. ICT explains that Ojibwe communities on the milder eastern side of Lake Superior use that name for March, and those on the western side use it a month later, so the same season can fall in different months. Taken together, the names track the thaw: ice breaking up, rivers opening, birds returning, and the first plants coming up.

ICT’s other lists show the same themes. The Dakota name for April, Maǧá okáda wí, means Geese Laying Eggs Moon, which matches the almanac’s Dakota entry. The Oneida name translates as “It’s Thundering,” the Diné (Navajo) name as Little Leaves, and the 1890s Cherokee seminary calendar gives Guwoni, Duck, for the duck-hunting season.

What makes the Pink Moon notable

April’s full moon is often the one that fixes the date of Easter. The US Naval Observatory states the rule used by Western churches: Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21. The full moon in that rule is an “ecclesiastical” full moon taken from church tables, not the astronomical full moon in our table. The two usually match closely, but not always. When the March full moon comes before March 21, the April full moon is the one that counts.

The Pink Moon also arrives as the evening sky changes from the winter stars to the spring ones. Nights are getting shorter, and a full moon sits opposite the Sun, so April’s full moon stays up for less of the night than winter’s did. It also climbs less high.

In some years, the Pink Moon is close to the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower in late April. A bright moon washes out all but the brightest Lyrids.

How to watch the Pink Moon

The table above lists the moonrise time for major cities on the best evening. Be outside a few minutes before it with a clear view east, and look for the first bright edge just above the horizon. A full moon rises close to sunset, so it often appears against a soft twilight sky.

That rising moon may look large and orange. The color is real: low moonlight crosses a thick slab of air that scatters away the blue. The size is not. NASA notes that photos taken with the same zoom setting show the Moon is just as wide high in the sky as on the horizon. Researchers have proposed several explanations for the Moon illusion, including the Ponzo illusion, in which nearby objects distort our sense of size, but NASA says none has been firmly settled.

For the full spring effect, find a spot where creeping phlox or other early flowers grow, and look for the Moon rising above them.