TONIGHT! Expect a dazzling full pink moon on Easter weekend 

The next full moon will be expected tonight on Saturday, April 16. Yet this Easter weekend’s moon will be quite different: viewers can expect to see the Pink Moon. 

The moon will appear full for about three days, from Friday to Monday morning, covering the whole weekend, according to NASA. It will be at peak fullness on April 16 at 1:55 p.m. ET. 

According to a 1930s Old Farmer’s Almanac, the full moon in April is known as the Pink Moon, in reference to the herb moss pink (also known as creeping phlox, moss phlox, or mountain phlox), a native eastern U.S. plant that is commonly seen throughout spring. 

However, the Pink Moon goes by many other names, including the Sprouting Grass, Egg, or Fish Moon, the Pesach, Passover, or Paschal Moon, the Hanuman Jayanti Festival Moon, and Bak Poya, continues NASA. 

The Pink Moon plays an important role in the Christian ecclesiastical calendar: it helps calculate the date of Easter. “Generally, the Christian holiday of Easter, also called Pascha, is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring,” continued NASA. 

For Hindus, the Pink Moon corresponds with the bird date of Lord Hanuman and is dubbed the Hanuman Jayanti Festival Moon. For Buddhists, the Pink Moon, or Bak Poya, celebrates when Budda visited Sri Lanka and helped avoid war between tribes. 

In addition to the impressive moon that will be seen this weekend, NASA claimed that night sky viewers will also be able to observe four planets: Mars, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter.