As early people developed their society and cultures, they named things in their surroundings including the full moon. Each month the full moon shows prominently in the night sky and would have drawn the attention, as it still does, to the people in these ancient cultures. As the year winds down from the growing season, the heat of summer starts to cool, the season turns to autumn with the autumnal equinox where day and night are equal - a time of balancing and completing tasks. For the early peoples, every day would be busy with harvesting their crops in order to ensure survival through the cold winter months. For the modern pagan, survival is less an issue but autumn can be a time to finish goals.
As the early people looked up, survival and harvest predominantly occupied their minds. Naturally they named the full moon after things that were occurring in life like harvest, barley, corn, nut and mulberry.[i] Depending on the latitude these products are all ripening for harvest during September. The full moon represents bounty; therefore, naming the full moon after one of the bountiful crops symbolized good crops so the community could flourish. The Chinese named the moon Chrysanthemum partly because the flower blooms during this month but also because this was one of the herbs they used.
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