Supermoon 2013 June 23 Strawberry Moon Perigee
|
Image Courtesy: Girlie Cervantes
|
The largest moon of 2013 will rise over the Philippines at 7.32pm (11:32 GMT) on the evening of 23rd June. Astronomers will know it as the “perigee moon”, farmers the “strawberry moon” while bloggers and tweeters will promote it as a “supermoon of 2013”; fun loving sailors will know it as the best excuse to have a beach party somewhere along the shores of the Verde Island Passage near Puerto Galera.
The perigee moon has been called such since the time of the famous Greek astronomers – a French word, from medieval Latin, the word originates from the Greek word “perigeion” or “close/near (to) Earth”.
Of the three supermoons occurring during 2013 (May, June and July), the June supermoon will be the largest, because the moon will be at its closest to Earth at this time. After the June 23rd, supermoon, the next perigee will occur on 10th August, 2014, when the moon will actually be a whole 5km closer to Earth than in June 2013. Typical supermoons appear to be as much as 10% larger than normal moons because the perigee moon is approximately 10% closer to Earth at these times.
As a former picker of strawberries I can relate to the farmer’s almanac reference to the Strawberry Moon; this is the time of year when strawberries are harvested . . . being paid by the pound of strawberries harvested, the long midsummer evenings and the light afforded by the full moon increased my earnings potential. When I was too young to be employed to harvest commercial strawberries, at this time of year I would scrump on wild strawberries that I discovered one day while crawling along a badger trail in the woodland behind our house . . . until housing developers cut a swathe of destruction through the woodland and destroyed badger trail and my secret strawberry patch. In England, the country of my strawberry picking youth, the moon was most often called the Rose Moon, for less obvious reasons.
The name Strawberry Moon most likely originated in the northeastern portion of North America, in areas of what is now the United States of America and Canada. It appears to be the anglicized version of words used by the Algonquin tribes of that region, who collected the strawberry as much for its medicinal qualities as for its taste; both the strawberry leaves and the fruit can be used to treat most digestive and blood related disorders.
How strawberries came to be so prolific in so many parts of the World is somewhat of a mystery. Early references to strawberries in literature date back to Italy and Greece around 2,000 year ago, and they were widely noted throughout Europe during the middle ages and later. However, they were also noted by the first arriving European colonizers as indigenous to North America (especially in what is now the state of Virginia), so one can presume that birds were responsible for seed dispersal at some point in the misty eons before recorded time . . the only question is, in which direction did the seed-dispersing birds travel? Perhaps one day soon some geneticist will study the different strawberry genomes and resolve this mystery.
The most modern name – SuperMoon – is actually very new, and a product of our insatiable lust for simplistic sensationalism in news and social-network-speak. The “super” part of supermoon is immediately recognizable as being bigger & stronger than any other, in the same way that “super”man is superior to us mere mortals. By comparison, in our modern pop-culture, where everything must require as little thought as possible, “perigee” fails entertain the brain with the same enthusiasm.
If you enjoy the sport of sailing and are looking for the most fun that you can have under this June’s supermoon then you will be in Puerto Galera for the Puerto Galera Yacht Club’s Mid-summer Regatta: 22-23 June, 2013. In Puerto Galera you will find the most fun groups of moon-mad sailors, their entourages and friends, enjoying the sailing by day and beach bar-b-queing by night. Even if the clouds obscure the moon on the day, the party spirit will be so bright that you may not actually notice.
I plan to be in Puerto Galera so if you want to add you comment on this article, please come and do it in person and raise a toast to Mother Nature’s glorious spectacle.
More information about the PGYC mid-Summer Regatta here.