Join us to welcome the start of Turtle Season with a bonfire that will be extinguished before those mama turtles can hopefully come ashore to leave us a nest.
Full Moon Bonfire
Monday, May 16, 2022
Location: On the beach between Boardwalk 1 and 2
Sunset – 8:12 pm
Moonrise – 9:10 pm
High Tide – 9:32 pm
Full Flower Moon
To keep things simple, each person brings what you want: food, drinks, chairs, and a stick of firewood for a big bonfire. Nothing will be provided but a beautiful beach, a bonfire, and, hopefully, a full moon.
People ask if the bonfire will be held if it’s rainy…. the bonfire will be canceled if it is raining or rain is threatening as few would be comfortable attending.
In terms of the permit, the fire needs to be out no later than 10:00 pm. The later sunset means there is no longer a conflict with dinner hour but we still have time to enjoy the evening.
Put these dates for the Full Moon Bonfires on your calendar:
Tuesday, June 14
Wednesday, July 13
Thursday, August 11
There’s always plenty of room on the beach for everyone, so invite a friend or bring your house guests.
You may have seen that we have a lunar eclipse this weekend. Unfortunately, it occurs early on the day of the full moon. The penumbral begins around 9:30 pm in Charleston on Sunday evening. The full eclipse begins around 11:30 pm Sunday evening. (Full moon is actually 12:15 am on Monday morning). Full eclipse ends around 12:50 am Monday. The penumbral eclipse ends around 2:50 am Monday morning. This means if you want to observe the eclipse, you will need to stay up late and enjoy our beach two nights in a row.
The May full moon is a Supermoon. Per Farmers Almanac (almanac.com/what-supermoon), a Supermoon is “a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit.” Given that a supermoon full moon is closer to Earth than a normal full moon, it does appear larger—about 7% larger, technically speaking. This means that the difference between a full moon at perigee and a full moon at apogee can be up to 14%, which is significant. The site does however note that this difference in size is not really noticeable.
For those who like to watch the International Space Station fly over, it will be visible during our bonfire (weather permitting). According to NASA (spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings) it will be visible Monday, May 16, beginning at 9:05 pm for 6 minutes. It will appear at 10° above WSW and disappear at 10° above NNE, reaching a maximum height of 30°. We will have to wave to the crew as they fly over.
How the Full Moon got its name:
Per Old Farmers Almanac (almanac.com/content/full-moon-names) May is the Full Flower Moon – Flowers spring forth in abundance this month.
Other names:
• Budding Moon
• Egg Laying Moon
• Frog Moon
• Leaf Budding Moon
• Planting Moon
• Moon of Shedding Ponies
Another page on this site has this text:
The Cree names Budding Moon and Leaf Budding Moon celebrate the awakening of plant life. Egg Laying Moon and Frog Moon are other Cree terms for this period. Moon of the Shedding Ponies is an Oglala term. Planting Moon (Dakota, Lakota) marks the time to plant seeds and start the year’s crops.
I found another website (http://newsclipper.hubpages.com/hub/The-Moon-Facts-Trivia-and-Folklore). This site also says the Cherokee Indians called it the Planting Moon and the English Medieval name was the Hare Moon.
Another website (https://www.space.com/16830-full-moon-calendar.html) says the Chinese call it Dragon Moon.
Submitted by Judy Morr
(Image credit: Pixabay.com)