See the Full Worm Moon rise Monday night, then turn blood red Tuesday morning
We'll see a fairly normal Full Moon on Monday night, but it will change quite a bit in the hours after midnight!
Clear skies Monday night? If so, take a few moments to pause and look up at the Full Worm Moon as it rises in the sky.
On the night of March 2-3, 2026, the last Full Moon of the winter season rises. This is known as the Worm Moon, and although it will appear as any other Full Moon for the first half of the night, it will transform into a 'blood moon' between midnight and dawn.
Check your local forecast to see if sky conditions in your area will be right for viewing the night sky.
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What is a 'Worm Moon'?
For over a century, the publishers of the various farmer's almanacs have been publishing a list of names, with one for each of the 12 Full Moons of the year.
While some of these names were taken from European or Colonial folklore, most were adopted from the lunar calendar used by the Indigenous peoples living in what is now the northeastern United States and the Great Lakes region.
This graphic collects all the relevant data about each of the 13 Full Moons of 2026 — their date, popular name, whether they are a 'super' or 'micro' Moon, a perigee or apogee Full Moon, and whether they are remarkable in some other way (Lunar Eclipse, Blue Moon, or Harvest Moon). (NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio/Fred Espenak/Scott Sutherland)
According to this list, the March Full Moon is most commonly known as the Worm Moon.
"For many years, we thought this name referred to the earthworms that appear as the soil warms in spring," The Old Farmer's Almanac stated on their website.
"However, more research revealed another explanation," they added. "In the 1760s, Captain Jonathan Carver visited the Naudowessie (Dakota) and other Native American tribes and wrote that the name Worm Moon refers to a different sort of 'worm' — beetle larvae — which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time."
Other Indigenous peoples named this Full Moon, and the roughly 29-day 'lunation' that it belongs to, after animals, such as the goose (the Haida), the eagle (the Cree), the frog (the Omaha), or the crane (the Potawatomi). For others, the name signified the time when they hunted moose (the Abenaki) or caught specific species of fish (the Algonquin). The various Sioux people, such as the Assiniboine, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota named it the "sore eyes moon" — referring to the snow blindness that comes from sunlight reflecting off the bright ice that forms as old snow slowly settles and melts into a hard surface.
Total Lunar Eclipse
Depending on where the observer is across Canada, either staying up after midnight or getting up very early on Tuesday morning, will reward them with a view of the last total lunar eclipse until the end of 2028!
This graphical representation of the eclipse shows how much of the eclipse each location will see, based on the timing. The time the Moon sets during the eclipse is shown for all locations except Vancouver, where it slips below the horizon just after the eclipse ends. (Scott Sutherland/NASA SVS)
As shown in the graphic above, what someone sees from this eclipse varies quite a bit depending on what time zone they watch from during the event.
Farther east, the eclipse will occur closer to dawn on Tuesday. Thus, it will end early due to the Moon setting beyond the horizon.
In Atlantic Canada, only the partial lunar eclipse will be visible before the Moon is lost from sight. Starting in Quebec and for locations to the west, at least part of the total phase of the eclipse will be visible, but for different lengths of time — minutes in Quebec, up to nearly an hour for anywhere west of Ontario.
READ MORE: A total lunar eclipse will shine over Canada! Here's how to watch from anywhere