The Pink Moon appears amid the oldest meteor shower

The full moon of the third lunar month, nicknamed the Pink Moon, will appear bright and round in the sky from April 22-24. The moon will be at its fullest on April 23 and will shine in the constellation Virgo, close to Spica, one of the 20 brightest stars in the night sky.

The full moon coincides with the peak of the Lyrids meteor shower and can overshadow the annual shooting stars.

Low angle view of the moon in the sky at sunset. (Photo: Getty Images).

The Pink Moon is named after the color of the flowers that bloom at this time of year. It is also known as the Breaking Ice Moon, New Moon, Awakening Moon and Egg Moon.

Other Native American names for the March full moon include: Red Grass Moon (Oglala), Grass Moon (Tlingit), Blackberry Moon (Choctaw), Flower Moon (Cherokee), and Big Leaf Moon (Apache) ) , according to the agricultural calendar.

According to the Center for Native American Studies, the Anishinaabeg, or Ojibwe, indigenous people of the Great Lakes region called it Popogami Giizis or Broken Snowshoe Moon .

In Judaism, the Pink Moon is also known as the Passover Moon because it marks the first day of the Jewish Passover (Pesach).

Another name is the Easter Moon. The name comes from its association with Easter ("paschal" means related to Easter), which is celebrated by Western Christians on the first Sunday after the first full moon. on or after the spring equinox.

In a rare celestial event, many skywatchers in North America also saw the Pink Moon during the new moon phase on April 8, when the moon briefly obscured the sun during a solar eclipse. totality. True to its nickname, the moon offers some surprisingly rosy views of the sun's atmosphere during the peak of the eclipse.