Full moon | Definition, Symbol, Orbit, & Facts (2024)

full moon, one of eight lunar phases, in which the entire round illuminated face of the Moon is visible from Earth. The full moon is typically considered the most striking of the lunar phases because during this phase the most sunlight reflects off the Moon toward Earth. During and around the night of the full moon, other celestial objects such as stars and planets are more difficult to observe because of the Moon’s glare. It is also difficult to observe the surface of the Moon itself when it is full, as the light tends to wash out topographic features.

Given that one half of the Moon always faces the Sun as it orbits, one half of the Moon is always illuminated and the other half is always dark. As the Moon progresses through its orbit, the amount of the illuminated lunar surface visible from Earth changes, creating the phases. The Moon appears full when it reaches the halfway point of its orbit—that is, when it is directly opposite the Sun, with Earth in between. Due to its position opposite the Sun, the full moon rises at sunset and sets at sunrise.

The cycle of lunar phases lasts close to a month, at 29.5 days, a period known as the synodic month. Thus, the full moon occurs typically once per calendar month, but, when the full moon happens within the first two days of a given month, a second full moon may occur within the same month. This phenomenon, known as a “blue moon,” occurs on average about once every 33 months, though there have been years in which two blue moons have occurred.

The orbit of the Moon around the Earth-Moon barycentre is not a perfect circle but an oblong shape known as an ellipse. Thus, the distance between the two bodies is not constant. When the Moon reaches the point in orbit closest to Earth (perigee), it can appear from Earth as much as 14 percent larger in the sky than at its farthest point (apogee). When a full moon occurs close to the perigee, it is often regarded as a supermoon, a term coined in the 1970s. This phenomenon usually occurs in about four or five consecutive lunar cycles per year. The geometrical relationship between the Moon, Earth, and the Sun can cause other night-sky phenomena, such as lunar eclipses, which occur only during the full moon when the Moon travels into Earth’s shadow, or umbra, and thus appears darker (and sometimes tinted red) in the sky.

As the largest and brightest object regularly seen in the sky besides the Sun, the full moon has persisted as a symbol in legend, religion, and even agriculture across many cultures. For example, in Hinduism, full moon days, or Purnima, are often celebrated by fasting. Full moon days have historically been significant to followers of Buddhism, and full moon rituals are common in Neo-Paganism and similar movements. In Europe the full moon was believed to trigger uncontrollable behaviour in what was known as the “lunar lunacy effect,” which inspired tales of werewolves and other beasts that broke free only under the full moon’s light. Today the full moon is still associated with erratic behaviour and an increase in crime rates, though these ideas are an urban legend.

Many cultures and civilizations across history have used the moon cycles to keep track of passing time, and some gave names to the full moons that often referenced the climate or agriculture of a given “month.” There are countless records and translations of these names. In the English language today, there is a set of 12 names for the full moons that occur within a year (the 13th is called a blue moon). For example, the January full moon is called the wolf moon, the March full moon is called the worm moon, and the September full moon is called the full corn moon or the harvest moon. It is likely that colonial Americans adopted some of these names from the Indigenous peoples of North America, and others may have come from the Celts or the people of medieval England.