Strawberry Moon

The name is Algonquian in origin and refers to the brief window for gathering wild strawberries in the northeast. It is specific to that region — the berries are not ripe everywhere in June, and the name travelled further than the harvest ever did.

In Europe the same moon is the Rose Moon, and the alternative Honey Moon has produced one of the more persistent etymological arguments in the calendar. The word “honeymoon” is attested from the sixteenth century and probably refers to the waning of affection after a wedding rather than to June specifically, but the association between June weddings and the Honey Moon has been made for long enough that the two are now inseparable in popular usage.

The June full moon is the lowest of the year in the northern hemisphere, sitting opposite a sun that is at its highest. At mid-northern latitudes it can skim the southern horizon all night without ever climbing far, which exaggerates its apparent size and gives it a deep amber colour for hours at a stretch.

Also known as

• Rose Moon
• Hot Moon
• Mead Moon
• Honey Moon

The 1778 record

Travelling among the Dakota in 1766 and 1767, Captain Jonathan Carver wrote down all twelve month names in a single passage. Published in 1778, it predates the almanac list by roughly a century and a half and is the oldest independent check on these names.