When and where to see the Pink Moon 2027
The exact moment of full moon is Tuesday, April 20, 2027 at 6:27 PM in New York. The best night to watch is Tuesday, April 20, when the Moon comes up at 7:50 PM, low in the east-southeast, about 10 minutes after sunset. It climbs to about 31° above the horizon around 12:55 AM and sets around sunrise the next morning.
A full moon looks full for about three nights. From New York the Moon is 99% lit when it rises the evening before and 98% the evening after, and on those nights it rises 70 minutes and 70 minutes later each evening. Those long gaps come from the steep angle of the Moon's path to the evening horizon at this time of year.
The Moon is at a declination of -16.4° this time, well south of the celestial equator, so for the Northern Hemisphere it stays low and is up for a shorter time, while the Southern Hemisphere sees it high. It sits in front of the stars of Virgo, close to Spica (7.4° away).
| City | Exact full moon (local time) |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Tuesday, April 20, 2027, 3:27 PM |
| New York | Tuesday, April 20, 2027, 6:27 PM |
| London | Tuesday, April 20, 2027, 11:27 PM |
| Berlin | Wednesday, April 21, 2027, 12:27 AM |
| New Delhi | Wednesday, April 21, 2027, 3:57 AM |
| Tokyo | Wednesday, April 21, 2027, 7:27 AM |
| Sydney | Wednesday, April 21, 2027, 8:27 AM |
Why is it called the Pink Moon?
The Pink Moon is the April full moon, and no, it does not look pink. The Old Farmer's Almanac ties the name to the early spring bloom of Phlox subulata, the creeping phlox or moss pink, a wildflower of eastern North America that carpets open ground in pink in April.
April full moons also matter to calendars. The Christian date of Easter, and the Jewish festival of Passover, are both set by the first full moon of spring, and the April full moon often plays that role.
Other names for the April full moon
The almanac names are one tradition among many. Native American peoples used hundreds of moon names that followed their own local seasons, and the attributions below are those given by the Old Farmer's Almanac:
- Breaking Ice Moon: Algonquin
- Broken Snowshoe Moon: Anishinaabe
- Moon When the Ducks Come Back: Lakota
- Moon When the Geese Lay Eggs: Dakota
- Sucker Moon: Anishinaabe, when sucker fish spawn
- Sugar Maker Moon: Western Abenaki
April in nature and the sky
In April spring takes hold across the north. Migrant birds pour in, swallows and martins return to Europe, trees come into leaf and the woods fill with early wildflowers before the canopy closes. In the eastern United States it is the month of the redbud and dogwood bloom, and of the spring peeper chorus at night.
Spring full moons sit low. The full moon in April follows roughly the path of the October Sun, so from mid-northern latitudes it never climbs as high as the winter moons.
Festivals on the Pink Moon 2027
Many of the world's calendars are lunar, so festivals around the globe fall on this same full moon. Dates below were checked against published calendars; where India and the US keep different dates, both are given.
Passover
First seder evening April 21, 2027
Passover begins on the 15th of Nisan, at the full moon of spring. In 2027 it comes a month after Western Easter because 5787 is a Jewish leap year with an extra month of Adar.
Hanuman Jayanti
April 20, 2027
The birth anniversary of Hanuman is kept on Chaitra Purnima, the first full moon of the Hindu lunar year in the North Indian calendar.
Bak Poya
April 20, 2027
Sri Lanka's April full moon holiday, remembering the Buddha's second visit to the island.
Orthodox Easter
May 2, 2027
Orthodox churches calculate Easter with the Julian calendar, so in 2027 their Paschal full moon is this April one and Orthodox Easter falls on May 2.
The Lyrid meteor shower peaks around April 22 each year, so in 2027 its few meteors an hour compete with a bright, nearly full Moon.
Supermoon, micromoon or neither?
The Pink Moon 2027 is 383,421 km from Earth, centre to centre. That is neither a supermoon (closer than 362,500 km) nor a micromoon (farther than 405,000 km); it appears 0.3% wider than a full moon at the average distance. Of the 12 full moons of 2027, it is the 6th closest. The biggest is the Wolf Moon at 357,635 km and the smallest the Buck Moon at 405,968 km.
The Pink Moon from the Southern Hemisphere
In the Southern Hemisphere April is mid-autumn. Leaves are turning in southern Australia, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina, and the April full moon climbs higher each month toward the winter maximum. The full moon happens at the same instant worldwide; in Sydney it is Wednesday, April 21, 2027 at 8:27 AM, and the Moon climbs to about 75° there that night, compared with 31° from New York. South of the equator the Moon also looks upside down to northern eyes, with the dark "Man in the Moon" features flipped.
Before and after the Pink Moon
More: All full moon names · Moon calendar 2027 · Next full moon · Moon phase today