Super-large Harvest Moon : Supermoon Draw Attention in Japan

The moon has since time immemorial inspired many a poem in Japan and a reputed poet is remembered for his poem Howling at the Moon.....one Haiku stands out portraying a man strolling around a pond all night through cherishing the moon's  image on its surface.

Autumn come, moon-viewing parties are common wherever in Japan - tables displaying dumplings, persimmons, pears at the foot of a vase of silver grass - all facing the moon. Kids are welcome to "sneak in" from the yard gate with a pointed stick and "steal away" the dumplings. Grownups look the other way and let them "get away". The Japanese are uniquely kind to the moon as a symbol of nature and more often than not raise a hue and cry over this celestial body.

The supermoon, therefore, is something to make a specially big issue of in Japan. Meteorologists are busy forecasting how the skies will likely be the night of the supermoon and housewives preparing dumplings ready for the feast. On September 27th, the night before the supermoon, Osaka's Umeda SkyBuilding was crowded with moon viewers ready for the celestial show. The Meteorological Agency assures the areas west of Kansai down to Shikoku will have their skies nice and clear.

A supermoon is another name for either full or new moon as it approached closest to the earth, appearing once in about 411.8 days. Stories have been written and folklores told suggesting some association between the supermoon phenomenon and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Recent eruptions in some part of Japan are linked by some with an approaching supermoon. But, no evidence has been found of any correlation between supremoons and earthquakes.

To close this episode, a couple of Haiku masterpieces are most appropriate:

A full harvest moon,
Wife of a blind man weeps her heart out all night

Mom, get me that moon,
Stamps his feet, my son.