What to know about the Strawberry Moon lunar eclipse on Friday night

A full moon will take place on Friday night and with it, the “Strawberry Moon” will bring a penumbral lunar eclipse. The June full moon also happens to be the last full moon of spring, an occurrence that was named Strawberry Moon by the Algonquin tribes, according to NASA.

The name comes from the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries in the northeastern United States.

The Strawberry Moon will be close enough to opposite the sun that it will pass through part of the partial shadow of the Earth, causing an eclipse. During the eclipse, the moon will not be in the sky for most of the Americas, NASA says. The Moon will appear full for about three days, from early Thursday morning into early Sunday morning.

The eclipse will be entirely visible in eastern Africa, the Middle East, southern Asia and Australia, according to Space.com. It will begin at 1:45 p.m. ET and lasts until 5:04 p.m. ET – about three hours and 18 minutes.

The Strawberry Moon has also been called Mead Moon or the Honey Moon. The end of June was when honey was ripe and ready to be harvested, which made this the “sweetest” moon, according to some writings, NASA says.

The tradition of calling the first month of marriage the “honeymoon” may be tied to this full moon – either because the “Honey Moon” is the “sweetest” moon of the year, or because getting married in June is a custom.

Some consider this full Moon the Rose Moon, but other sources from Europeans and Native Americans also refer to it as the Flower Moon, Hot Moon, Hoe Moon, and Planting Moon, NASA says.

Hindus also have traditions surrounding this lunar occurrence. During the three-day full moon, married women will show their love for their husbands by tying a ceremonial thread around a banyan tree, according to NASA.

Buddhists call this full moon the Poson Poya. In Sri Lanka, the Poson holiday celebrates the introduction of Buddhism in 236 BCE.