The harvest moon this year arrived despite a warmer autumn. It usually is a full moon--seen when the night is clear, but not visible in areas under the bad weather or cloudy skies. This week, the autumnal equinox arrived and as it happened, most people would see a full moon.
For most people in the North, the autumn equinox arrived even though the weather still had a summer warmth to it. a full moon to people with clear skies, but to others which had cloudy skies, the 'harvest moon' still managed to arrive. Space reported that the 'harvest moon' usually happened during October's full moon, although there were already a few incidents-from 1970 to 2020-where the September 'harvest moon' occurred.
The 'harvest moon' is so-called because it was used as an indicator during pre-Industrial times. Farmers knew when it was time to harvest because they followed the moon's phase until they knew it was the week before the coming winter season. The warning was the week before the shortening of the daylight hours, where they needed to house the crops and cut the firewood for the season.
People can also note a harvest moon by the time it rises. A harvest moon, according to WNEM, rises close to sunset. It's a planetary thing; the moon moves ecliptic because it is in the smallest angle in comparison to the Earth. This is why the harvest moon appears to move as if it is in a ramp while it moves towards its full phase.
Those in the Southern hemisphere-in this case, certain parts of Asia as well as New Zealand, may have exceeding times in the moonrise phase. In most cases, the moonrise occurs in the Southern hemisphere about 50 minutes to an hour from sunset. There have been times when people thought that the harvest moon lasted longer in the sky than normal full moons, but it only happens during the December solstice.
In China, the harvest moon signals the Mid-Autumn Festival, which happens traditionally during the arrival of the harvest moon. It's an opportunity to share time with family, but that has also been replaced by a busier life-one where people rarely have the time to celebrate festivals because of work and long distances.
China celebrated the beginning of autumn last September 24, whereas, in the rest of the world, it was celebrated on September 22.
