Is a new name wishing for the moon?

Full moons, in popular western culture in recent times, have been synonymous with werewolves and vampires, ably amplified on celluloid. However, people appear to have (re)discovered that full moons have characters of their own, beyond the proverbial blue one.

The latest one — on March 28 — bore the rather weird term Worm Moon, so called apparently because in Native American cultures, it marks the day when earthworms wriggle their way above ground signalling spring.

Among its other names are Crow Moon as cawing indicates thawing of the snow, Crust Moon as daytime thaw is often followed by night-time frost then, and even Sap Moon as maple tree tapping begins then.


India could consider throwing its hat into the Moon-naming ring too considering all ‘purnimas’ have had a prefix here too for a long time, usually linked to the month or a festival — such as Sravan Purnima, Guru Purnima and Madhu Purnima.

March’s full moon was also deemed a ‘Super Moon’, which means it came very close to the Earth on its elliptical orbit and appeared bigger than normal. That term does sound better than its scientific name, Perigree Moon, but Maha Moon too has a nice ring to it.

Fans will be over the moon about the bonanza of three more supermoons and a blue moon coming up this year, not to mention two lunar eclipses.