April is known for its showers and ever-warming temperatures, but it is also known as a month when spring flowers begin to show up. Herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. As the name infers, the flowers are pink in color, thus the name for April’s full moon.
This pink moon has also been called: the full sprouting grass moon, the egg moon, and among coastal tribes, the full fish moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
According to the Farmers’ Almanac, this year’s full pink moon will take place on April 9th at 10:56 m EDT.
in 2009, the full pink moon is also the full paschal moon which helps set the date for Easter. Easter is determined as being the first Sunday following the first full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal (spring) equinox.
If you notice a hole in the upper left-hand corner of your Farmers' Almanac, don't return it to the store! That hole isn't a defect; it's a part of history. Starting with the first edition of the Farmers' Almanac in 1818, readers used to nail holes into the corners to hang it up in their homes, barns, and outhouses (to provide both reading material and toilet paper). In 1910, the Almanac's publishers began pre-drilling holes in the corners to make it even easier for readers to keep all of that invaluable information (and paper) handy.
