Harvest Moon
Across the northern United States, cornfields are ready for gathering and leaves are beginning to turn. Moonlight reaches the fields as daylight fades. The harvest name recalls evenings when that light helped people keep working after sunset.
, 2027
· 23:03 UTC · Moon in Pisces
Where the name comes from
Bringing crops in from the fields could continue after sunset when moonlight offered enough illumination to work. NASA connects the Harvest Moon name with the time before electric lighting, when farmers depended on the Moon to continue harvesting after dark, while Royal Museums Greenwich gives the same practical explanation. The Old Farmer's Almanac and the Farmers' Almanac both list Harvest Moon and link its name to the full moon nearest the September equinox. Its seasonal setting belongs to the Northern Hemisphere, where the closely spaced evening moonrises around this part of autumn traditionally gave harvesting crews useful light on successive nights.
The surrounding names describe particular crops and seasonal changes rather than a single shared naming system. The Old Farmer's Almanac lists Corn Harvest Moon as a Dakota name and Corn Maker Moon as a Western Abenaki name, both pointing toward the crop being gathered. It also lists Falling Leaves Moon as an Ojibwe name and Yellow Leaf Moon as an Assiniboine name, shifting attention from fields to foliage. These are the publication's cultural attributions, not evidence that all the peoples listed used the same calendar or treated Harvest Moon as their own term.
Other names for the September full moon
- Corn Harvest Moon — Dakota
- Corn Maker Moon — Western Abenaki
- Falling Leaves Moon — Ojibwe
- Yellow Leaf Moon — Assiniboine
What the season is doing
In much of the northern United States, late summer and early fall bring the corn harvest, the seasonal work behind several names in the Old Farmer's Almanac's list. Other entries point beyond cornfields: the publication lists Ricing Moon as an Anishinaabe name and Moon When the Rice is Laid Up to Dry as a Dakota name. Names referring to yellow, turning, and falling leaves place the harvest alongside changes in the woods. Read together, these labels describe gathering, drying, and the approach of colder weather, rather than a change that happens everywhere on the night of the full moon.
What the name does not mean
Despite its familiar golden image, this name does not identify a Moon with a special color or size. The Old Farmer's Almanac sometimes describes it as bigger, brighter, and more golden, but Wikipedia distinguishes its orange appearance near the horizon from anything unique to a harvest moon. That coloring comes from the atmosphere scattering the Moon's light, not from the seasonal label. NASA separately explains that an unusually large-looking supermoon is associated with the Moon being closer to Earth; Harvest Moon is not another name for that condition.
Harvest Moon dates, 2025 to 2030
Between 2025 and 2030 the Harvest Moon falls as early as September 11 (2030) and as late as October 6 (2025), in Aries or Pisces: a full moon sits opposite the Sun, which at this time of year is in Libra or Virgo.
When the name moves
The Harvest Moon is the full moon nearest the September equinox, so it is the one name here that can change month. Between 2025 and 2030 it falls in October in 2025 and 2028; in those years September's full moon goes by Corn Moon instead (September 7, 2025 and September 3, 2028).
The Harvest Moon is the same disc for everyone. Which part of your own chart it falls across depends on your birth date, and that is what a personal reading looks at. See a reading built from your birth moon →
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When is the Harvest Moon in 2027?
On Wednesday, September 15, 2027, at 7:03 PM EDT (23:03 UTC), with the Moon in Pisces. Central, Mountain and Pacific clocks read one, two and three hours earlier.
Is the Harvest Moon always in September?
No. The deciding point is proximity to the September equinox, not the month printed on the calendar. An October full moon can therefore take the Harvest Moon name. In that case, the Old Farmer's Almanac uses Corn Moon for September's full moon.
Does the Harvest Moon rise at the same time every night?
Not exactly: the Moon still rises later on successive evenings. The Old Farmer's Almanac explains that the delay is shorter around this autumn full moon in northern locations, keeping moonlight available early in the evening. Its description of nearly repeated rising times should not be read as an identical nightly schedule.
What is the difference between the Harvest Moon and the Hunter's Moon?
Harvest Moon refers to gathering crops; Hunter's Moon refers to hunting and preparing provisions for winter. Wikipedia and Royal Museums Greenwich describe the Hunter's Moon as following the Harvest Moon. Some almanac summaries instead describe an October Harvest Moon as replacing the month's Hunter's Moon label, so the naming conventions are not entirely uniform.
The months either side
Sources for the name and its history: almanac.com · timeanddate.com · farmersalmanac.com · en.wikipedia.org · spaceplace.nasa.gov · rmg.co.uk · abc7.com · magazine.outdoornebraska.gov. Dates, times and signs: our own calculation, checked against the US Naval Observatory.