Moon calendar for April 2027

Day by day

Key days of the month

The emptiest sky of the year

Arc to Arcturus: follow the curve of the Plough's handle, keep going, and you land on the orange star that runs the whole spring sky. The mnemonic survives because April needs it. Winter's bright company has set, and what took its place - Leo, Virgo, Boötes - is faint enough that you have to go looking rather than simply look up. The Lyrids peak on the 22nd; Chinese chroniclers were already writing them down two thousand years ago, which makes the shower a great deal older than the fifteen or twenty meteors an hour it now delivers.

The Pink Moon is not pink

Every April, the same disappointment. The name belongs to moss phlox, Phlox subulata, a low pink carpet that flowers early in eastern North America - not to the colour of the disc, which will be its usual bone white unless dust or smoke sits near the horizon. English calendars used Egg Moon and Paschal Moon for the same period, both tied to the church year rather than to anything in flower.

April's questions

No, it will not look pink, and that is the most-searched moon question of the month by a distance. After it comes planting out: last frosts, hardening off, and whether a waxing moon helps a seedling settle. We publish the phase and stop there. April also brings readers who have worked out that their Easter date came from March's full moon and want to see the sum done; the key days do it for them.

The Moon’s position is astronomy; the beliefs and interpretations are tradition, not scientific fact.