The Anglo-Saxon Lunar Calendar


The current date in the Anglo-Saxon lunar calendar is:


The Anglo-saxon lunar calendar gave names to the full moons of the year based upon the season in which they fell, e.g. the first full moon after the winter solstice is the After Yule Moon, and the first one following the spring equinox is the Egg Moon. The full list of full moon names is shown in the table below. These, with the exception of the Before Yule and After Yule Moons follow those generally accepted as being the Old English names, and as named in this Wikipedia article.

Full Moon Name Date Range
After Yule Moon Dec - Jan
Wolf Moon Jan - Feb
Lenten Moon Feb - Mar
Egg Moon Mar - Apr
Milk Moon Apr - May
Flower Moon May - Jun
Hay Moon Jun - Jul
Grain Moon Jul - Aug
Fruit Moon Aug - Sep
Harvest Moon Sep - Oct
Hunter's Moon Oct - Nov
Before Yule Moon Nov - Dec

To keep the moons in line with the seasons, however, an "extra" moon has to be inserted every now and then. Each season normally has three full moons, but when a season has four full moons, the third one is designated as the "extra" moon. This ensures that certain full moons, such as the Before Yule Moon and the Egg Moon, which must occur at certain times, are not displaced. This extra moon is called the Blue Moon. This article in Sky & Telescope claims that this rule is the correct and traditional method of defining a blue moon, and it is the method adopted here.

The full moons for the years 2008-11 are shown in the table below.

Moon 2008 2009 2010 2011
After Yule Moon 24 Dec 2007 11 Jan 2009 31 Dec 2009 19 Jan 2011
Wolf Moon 22 Jan 2008 9 Feb 2009 30 Jan 2010 18 Feb 2011
Lenten Moon 21 Feb 2008 11 Mar 2009 28 Feb 2010 19 Mar 2011
Egg Moon 21 Mar 2008 9 Apr 2009 30 Mar 2010 18 Apr 2011
Milk Moon 20 Apr 2008 9 May 2009 28 Apr 2010 17 May 2011
(Blue Moon) 20 May 2008 - - -
Flower Moon 18 Jun 2008 7 Jun 2009 27 May 2010 15 Jun 2011
Hay Moon 18 Jul 2008 7 Jul 2009 26 Jun 2010 15 Jul 2011
Grain Moon 16 Aug 2008 6 Aug 2009 26 Jul 2010 13 Aug 2011
Fruit Moon 15 Sep 2008 4 Sep 2009 24 Aug 2010 12 Sep 2011
Harvest Moon 14 Oct 2008 4 Oct 2009 23 Sep 2010 12 Oct 2011
Hunter's Moon 13 Nov 2008 2 Nov 2009 23 Oct 2010 10 Nov 2011
(Blue Moon) - - 21 Nov 2010 -
Before Yule Moon 12 Dec 2008 2 Dec 2009 21 Dec 2010 10 Dec 2011