The Last Time Humans Laid Eyes on the Lunar Honey Moon Was Almost 100 Years Ago

Impact

Friday the 13th was lit up by a “honey moon,” producing a combination that mankind hasn’t seen in a long, long time.

The last time a honey moon fell on a Friday the 13th, the year was 1919 — Woodrow Wilson was in the White House, Congress was approving women’s suffrage and Prohibition and Mahatma Gandhi was beginning resistance against British rule in India. If you missed it this time around, you’re in for quite a wait.

What’s a honey moon? The term dates back to 1552, according to National Geographic. It refers to a full moon in June, when the sun is at its highest path across the sky and the moon is at its lowest, giving it a yellow hue.

Some cultures traditionally held weddings in June, which may be why the term “honeymoon” has come to be associated with just-married couples nowadays. "The idea back then was that a marriage is like the phases of the moon, with the full moon being analogous to a wedding," astronomer Bob Berman told National Geographic. "Meaning, it's the happiest and 'brightest' time in a relationship."

It’s a sweet message, until you realize that means the light in marriages grows continuously darker and smaller before disappearing entirely.

I missed it! Well you’d better eat well and exercise, because the the combination won’t appear again until 2098. If you don’t need the yellow coloring, you can tune in for a Friday the 13th full moon in October 2019, or wait until 2025 when there will be two in one year.

Image credit: David Dickinson/Universe Today

In the meantime, you can live vicariously through other folks who managed to snap a photo.