As much as I enjoy the old standard, Shine On Harvest Moon, when it came to choosing the song for today, it just had to be Neil Young's Harvest Moon. I think it is one of the dearest, sweetest love songs ever written. How I love it.
If you go here, you may read the lyrics and see a video.
And a little info on today's full moon from the Earth Sky site:
Contrary to legend, the Harvest Moon isn't really bigger, or brighter or yellower than other full moons. What's different about the Harvest Moon is that - every autumn - the moon's path across the sky makes a narrow angle with the evening horizon. It's simply a fact of nature, one with a beautiful result. The moon's path in autumn causes the full moon to rise near the time of sunset for several evenings in a row, appearing big, bright and yellow each night.
No matter where you live, the moon will look round and full tonight as it rises in the east around sunset. This is the full Harvest Moon for us in the northern hemisphere.
Every month has a full moon, and all the full moons have names. The Harvest Moon is the name for the full moon closest to the September equinox, which came this year on September 23. This is the first full moon of autumn for us in this hemisphere. For the southern hemisphere, it’s the first full moon of spring.
The crest of the moon’s full phase comes today at precisely 19:45 Universal Time – that’s 2:24 p.m. in the central U.S. – and it’s the time when, for the entire Earth at once, the moon is most full. But, like all full moons, tonight’s Harvest Moon will ascend over the eastern horizon at sunset. Moonlight will fill the sky all night long. Farmers of old used the light of the Harvest Moon to gather their crops.
On average, the moon rises 50 minutes later each day. But – around the time of the Harvest Moon each autumn – the moon rises only about 30 minutes later each day. So farmers could continue working in the fields by moonlight. The difference springs from Earth’s tilt on its axis, the orbit of the moon around Earth, and the orbit of Earth around the sun.
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Now playing: Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Thanks for the song lyrics on the Harvest Moon. I'd like to go dancing tonight by the light of the moon but it's cold--I'd have to dance fast. I like the sidebar quote by Updike. It reminded me how much I love the smell of chrysanthemums and how they remind me of this time of year. I remember my older sister used to wear chrysanthemums to school football games and we would carry them in procession for an autumn service in church.
ReplyDeleteI love this song/album! Do you know he'll be in Boston on December 2nd & 3rd. I'd love to see him someday. Closest to us is either Denver or Chicago. :(
ReplyDeleteI love the idea too, Catherine Mary, but haven't done it yet. :<) I like that poem too. He says it all doesn't he? Makes me sad that schools don't use chalkboards anymore - they are all white boards with the dreadful smelling markers.
ReplyDeleteLes, I hate to have to say it, but this is pretty much the only Neil Young song I really like. He is someone like Stephen King to me, in that I really respect him and his work, but don't care for it personally.