JACKSON, Wyo. — May will see two full moons, with the first already making its ascent over Jackson.
The moon will reach peak fullness at 11:24 a.m. on Friday, May 1. The National Weather Service is calling for relatively clear skies on Thursday and Friday nights, so some good moon-watching could be in the cards.
The second full moon of May will arrive on May 31, peaking at 2:46 a.m. It will be a blue micromoon: “blue” because it’s the second full moon in a single month, and “micro” because it will occur when the moon is near its farthest point in its orbit, therefore appearing smaller and dimmer to the naked eye.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, May’s full moon has a number of names associated with it, including the “Flower Moon” and the “Frog Moon.”
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the Omàmiwinini (Algonquin) people are credited with naming May’s full moon the “Flower Moon,” a nod to the budding flowers that come with the spring season.
The Nêhiyawak (Cree) nation names for May’s full moon refer to the spring activities of animals including the “Egg Laying Moon” and “Frog Moon” as well as the spring blooms with the “Budding Moon” and “Leaf Budding Moon.”
Other names for May’s full moon include the “Moon of the Shedding Ponies” (Oglala) and “Planting Moon” (Sioux Nation).
The “Flower Moon” has been a topic of pop-cultural conversation in the past few years, due to the release of Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film adaptation of David Grann’s 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon, which chronicles the murders of Osage Nation members by white oil-seekers in the 1920s. In the book, Grann explains the significance of the Flower Moon:
“In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairies in the Osage territory of Oklahoma. … In May, when coyotes howl beneath an unnervingly large moon, taller plants, such as spiderworts and black-eyed Susans, begin to creep over the tinier blooms. … The necks of the smaller flowers break and their petals flutter away, and before long they are buried underground. This is why the Osage … refer to May as the time of the flower-killing moon.”
“Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann
