OUR WALK HAS BEEN CANCELED DUE TO THE EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING,
BUT FEEL FREE TO STEP OUTSIDE AND PAY TRIBUTE TO THE STRAWBERRY MOON
By Sid Baglini
Friday, June 21st, 2024
This is quite an extraordinary Full Moon occurring just hours after the Summer Solstice on the 20th marking the longest day of the year. For the “glass half full” folks, it’s a time to celebrate the gift of light far into the evening. For others, “the glass half empty” crew, it is the beginning of shortening days leading all too quickly to the early darkness of winter. Whatever your view of it, on this night we will blend the extreme length of daylight that marks the solstice with the brilliance of a Full Moon. And then, for the icing on the cake, it is the delightfully and appropriately named Strawberry Moon. Indigenous peoples delighted in the bright red fruit of the wild strawberry, a fruit much tinier and much seedier than our commercial berries but still a welcome addition to their summer menu. Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of the highly acclaimed book Braiding Sweetgrass and member of the Potawatomi tribe wrote a moving essay about the importance of this fruit to her as a child, writing “strawberries first shaped my view of a world full of gifts simply scattered at your feet.”
As always, we have other names that apply including The Fruits Are Small Moon (Mohawk) and The Green Corn Moon (Cherokee). European and Colonial names include the Mead Moon , (a fermented drink of honey, water and yeast) and since many choose to marry in June, The Honeymoon. Names like The Egg Laying Moon and The Birth Moon reflect the prodigious new life during this time of early summer. Not to be omitted is The Hoer Moon, a tribute to those of us with a garden who wield the hoe to vanquish flourishing weeds . Finally, there is the all too accurate name The Hot Moon which rings true after our past week of soaring temperatures.
The Moon will be very slow to rise this evening and will ride quite low on the horizon. It will not clear the horizon until 8:52 and may not be visible above the houses and trees until close to 9:30. This is characteristic for the summer when the Moon rides low in the sky and the Sun reaches high overhead. The opposite is true in the winter when the Moon arcs up overhead but the Sun tends to cross the sky on a lower trajectory. So we may have a reluctant Moon making a late entrance but we’ll still enjoy the camaraderie, the exercise, and the periodic factoids. We gather behind the library and there is plenty of parking on Channing or 1st Avenues. Hope to see you for a summer stroll in search of the Strawberry Moon.