SEPTEMBER - HARVEST MOON 


The Moon of September is also called Wine Moon, Singing Moon, Sturgeon Moon,
Haligmonath (Holy Month), Witumanoth (Wood Month), and Moon When Deer Paw the 
Earth.
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The Feast of Gauri is held at the New Moon in India.

The Incas celebrated the Citua, or Feast of the Moon at the New Moon nears the
Autumn Equinox.  Everyone performed a ritual cleansing, then smeared their faces 
with a paste of ground maize.  There followed several days of feasting and 
dancing.  This Moon festival was in honor of Mama Quilla, the Moon Goddess.

The Full Moon is the Festival of the Pig, which honors the Greek Goddess Demeter 
and the Norse Freyja.

The Irish name for this month is Mean Fomhair.

The modern Asatru call this the month of Shedding.

The annual Festival of Yue-ping was held in China from the New Moon to the Full 
Moon.  People made round cakes and painted figures of women or a hare and tress 
on them.  These were called Yue-ping, or Moon Cakes.  These cakes were presented 
to relatives and friends.
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Old Sayings & Lore 

The Chinese said that the Moon Mother had twenty-eight "houses" (Hsiu) and 
rested each night in a different one.  In each "house" she kept a warrior-hero 
consort who kept her company and did her bidding.

If it is fair the first day of September, it will remain so at least until the 
beginning of October.

Sailors say that if the Moon, in the first or last quarter, lay in a nearly a 
horizontal position with the horns upward, the weather would be fine.  Country 
folk in the U. S. say that the same type of Moon means good weather for twenty-
eight days.

Rain is coming when the Moon has a halo around it or when an outline can be seen 
between the horns of a waxing or waning Moon.

A verse:

When the Moon is at the full,      
Mushrooms you can safely pull.     
But when the Moon is on the wane,  
Wait ere you think to pluck again. 

Some farmers believe that planting of beans should be done on the waxing Moon -
except for runner beans and peas which grow counterclockwise, and should be
planted during the waning Moon.

An old legend says that on the Moon is everything that was wasted on Earth:

misspent time
squandered wealth
broken vows
unanswered prayers
fruitless tears
unfulfilled desires

The birth stone of September is the sapphire:

A maiden born when rustling leaves   
Are blowing in the September breeze, 
A sapphire on her brow should bind,  
'Twill cure diseases of the mind.