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Harvest moon

It's autumn which means the arrival of the Harvest moon and the Hunter's moon. I don't know anything about this but luckily the resident astronomer is here, Richard.
Jul 01,2015
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Richard: The previous podcast for level 3 was about Man's first steps on the moon. And for this week's podcastsinenglish.com, we're continuing the lunar theme.

 

Jackie: Yes, it's autumn which means the arrival of the Harvest moon and the Hunter's moon. I don't know anything about this but luckily the resident astronomer is here, Richard. Tell me what... what is the Harvest and the Hunter's moon?

 

Richard: Well, the Harvest moon is the full moon which is nearest to the autumnal equinox.

 

Jackie: Which is when night and day are of equal length.

 

Richard: Exactly, yes. And this year... obviously the equinox is around the 21st/22nd of September and it happens that this full moon will be on the 30th September.

 

Jackie: Okay, so the Harvest moon will be on September 30th, so what's the Hunter's moon?

 

Richard: Well, the Hunter's moon is the first full moon after this, the Harvest moon. And it's going to fall this year, I think it's the 29th October.

 

Jackie: So why are these, why are these moons significant? Why do they have names?

 

Richard: Well, normally the sun sets and it gets dark and then the moon rises.

Jackie: Right

Richard: However, for the Harvest and Hunter's Moon it rises much sooner after the sun has set.

 

Jackie: So why does it do that?

 

Richard: [laughs] Similar to the idea that the... that you have more hours of sunlight in summer and less in winter, it's a similar sort of thing happens with the moon. So it's to do with its orbit, it's a bit complicated. So at the end of the day it just means that there's less darkness between the sun setting and the moon rising.

 

Jackie: So the Harvest moon is called that because...

 

Richard: It gives more time for people to bring in their harvests. They can harvest during the afternoon and in the evening as well and it's still light using the light of the moon.

Jackie: Ah, okay, that makes sense. So why is the Hunter's Moon so called?

Richard: Well, after you've bring in... after you've brought in the harvest, a lot of people go out hunting and they're hunting for migrating birds. The birds um... migrate in September-October time and they have light to kill the birds.

 

Jackie: Oh dear, okay. Well, that's interesting.

 

Richard: Very traditional, you see. But the interesting thing is, obviously this only happens in the Northern Hemisphere...

 

Jackie: Right

 

Richard: ...because it's autumn time, Southern Hemisphere it's spring, isn't it? But not just in Western cultures: a very similar thing happens in the East, in China and in Vietnam.

 

Jackie: Right, 'cos I know that the Chinese and the Vietnamese, they have lunar and not solar calendars.

 

Richard: They do indeed, yes.

Jackie: Right

Richard: And they also have the mid-autumn Moon Festival which takes place on the 15th day of the 8th month.

 

Jackie: Right and I know that this year that festival falls on September 30th and that's the Harvest Moon.

 

Richard: Well that's why. It's no coincidence, that's why it happens.

Jackie: And it's all to do with celebrating the end of the harvest.

Richard: Same thing for them. They're... they're bringing in the rice harvest at the same time.

 

Jackie: Right. And I know one of the things that they do in China and Vietnam is they make mooncakes, they celebrate with mooncakes.

 

Richard: Yes

 

Jackie: So, I've just got a few days left. Time to get in the kitchen, make some mooncakes.


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