The worm moon is March’s full moon. In 2026 it is full on Tuesday 3 March 2026 at 11:38am GMT. In 2026 it coincides with a penumbral lunar eclipse.
Where the name comes from
Royal Museums Greenwich: Native Americans called this last full moon of winter the worm moon after the worm trails that would appear in the newly thawed ground.
Their guide to the full moon names is where that wording comes from, read on 10 September 2026.
Worm Moon is a name for a month, then, not for a kind of moon.
What there is to see
The last full moon of winter, and in 2026 it comes with a penumbral lunar eclipse: the Moon passes through the outer, softer part of the Earth’s shadow. A penumbral eclipse is subtle rather than dramatic, and easy to miss if nobody tells you it is happening.
March is the handover month. The clocks have not gone forward yet at the start of it, so a full moon still arrives in proper darkness, and the Moon is beginning its slide down towards the summer path. It is a good month to notice that the full moon rises in the east as the Sun sets in the west, because the two happen close enough together to watch both.
What people get wrong about it
That a penumbral eclipse is worth setting an alarm for. It usually is not. The Moon passes through the faint outer shadow and dims very slightly across one edge, and most people who look without knowing see nothing at all. The partial eclipse in August is the one to plan around.
Worm Moon dates
- 2026: Tuesday 3 March 2026 at 11:38am (GMT)
- 2027: Monday 22 March 2027 at 10:44am (GMT)
Times London local, from NASA. The 2027 row carries one source, not two. How these dates were checked.
Where this sits in the year
The worm moon is the third of the 13 full moons in 2026. The one before it is the Snow Moon on Sunday 1 February 2026, and the one after is the Pink Moon on Thursday 2 April 2026.
Full moon number 3 of 13 sits in the calendar with every date and London time. For what the Moon is doing on the nights either side of Tuesday 3 March 2026 — waxing gibbous before, waning gibbous after — there is the eight phases of the Moon.
Why the date moves every year
The worm moon falls on Tuesday 3 March 2026 in 2026 and Monday 22 March 2027 in 2027 — 384 days apart rather than 365. Twelve lunar cycles fall about eleven days short of the calendar year, which is why March’s moon keeps sliding earlier; run that far enough and a thirteenth moon has to be squeezed in, as 2026 does in May.
Our bias, stated: we sell moon and lunar wall art. None of it is a worm moon as such, because there is nothing to draw — the worm moon looks like every other full moon. What can be got wrong is the drawing itself, and worm moon or no worm moon, how to tell an accurate moon phase print is the checklist for that.
Written by Craig Fearn, Aphelion Prints. Last updated .
